Show summary: LSAT expert Steve Schwartz shares how to prepare for the new online LSAT exam. Steve Schwartz, who’s spent 12 years helping thousands master the LSAT, breaks down what test-takers need to know about preparing for and taking the new online LSAT-Flex. Show notes: What test-takers need to know about the LSAT-Flex! The March...

Show summary: LSAT expert Steve Schwartz shares how to prepare for the new online LSAT exam.

Steve Schwartz, who’s spent 12 years helping thousands master the LSAT, breaks down what test-takers need to know about preparing for and taking the new online LSAT-Flex.

Show notes: What test-takers need to know about the LSAT-Flex!

The March and April LSATs were canceled. What are applicants to do? Take the GRE? No way. LSAT-Flex to the rescue!

Our guest today is Steve Schwartz, of the LSAT Blog and the LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel. Steve graduated from Columbia University in 2008. In high school and college, he tutored various subjects and also helped prep test-takers for standardized tests, including the LSAT. However, he really began to focus on the LSAT when he was applying for law school. He founded the LSAT Blog in 2008 and never looked back. Today, 12 years later, he has helped thousands master the LSAT and get into law school and sometimes secure scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars.

How is the LSAT-Flex different, in format and delivery, from the old LSAT? [2:01]

The biggest difference is that it’s online and students are doing it from home. The main reason for that, of course, is we’re speaking during COVID-19, stay-at-home orders, quarantines, shelter-in-place, and so it wasn’t possible to do it in person, so they’ve moved pretty quickly to allow students to do it from home.

And what about the content of the LSAT-Flex? [2:24]

The content is the same, except the amount of content is different. So you still have your logic games, logical reasoning, and reading comprehension, but now on LSAT-Flex, you have only one section of each, whereas in the old in-person LSAT, whether paper and pencil or digital, you had five sections—four scored plus one experimental, and the four included two logical reasoning sections rather than one as we have now in the LSAT-Flex.

Are they changing the scoring as a result, or keeping the same scale? [2:52]

It will still be the same scale. So students will still receive a score on the band of 120 to 180, but there are fewer scored questions—only 75 scored questions rather than 100 scored questions, so each question is worth more.

Are they going to count the logical reasoning section twice somehow because there are now half the number of those questions? [3:13]

That was my big question as well, and fortunately LSAT did tell us that, in fact, they will not double-weight logical reasoning. So each section will be worth approximately the same, which leads you to ask, why was logical reasoning ever half the exam if they’re willing to do an exam that does not include that? I think it’s simply the requirements of the platform, the requirements of administering a remote exam, and shortening the length of it from five sections to now only three sections, which can be done in about two hours.

Should applicants adjust their preparations if they’re taking the LSAT-Flex? [3:49]

They certainly should. You’re doing it two hours, three sections, not five. Logical reasoning has diminished in importance. Logic games and reading comp have relatively increased in importance. Endurance matters a little bit less, but it’s a lot more important to be warmed up and ready to go the second it starts, because every question counts more.

Does that mean it should be faster? Should applicants focus more on the games than they did on logical reasoning before? [4:16]

Yes, it does. If logical reasoning was not your strong suit, the LSAT-Flex will be more up your alley. Regardless of where you are, spend less time on reasoning than you otherwise would have, more on games and reading comp, and also simulate your practice tests with three sections back-to-back, no break, only two hours, and make sure that all your test day prep is based on taking it at home: at your comfortable desk, the same place you’ll do the actual thing, on the same device. Make sure that your internet connection is really strong, and make sure that whoever you’re quarantined with or sheltered-in-place with, that they’re not going to interrupt you for two hours. So they’re watching the kids, they’re watching the pets, no one’s going to walk in on you during the exam.

The LSAT-Flex is only available for those whose April 7th test was canceled, so this is not an option that’s going to be extended, at least at this point in time. [It was later extended. See here] Do you recommend that applicants sign up for the earliest LSAT they could be possibly ready for, in the hope that it too will be canceled and they can take the shorter LSAT-Flex? [5:05]

Yes, that’s a reasonable suggestion, but I wouldn’t suggest students take it significantly earlier if they wouldn’t be ready in time. So if you were thinking of taking it in either June or July, and you think you could be ready by June, then I would say yes, definitely register for June because the June 8th LSAT almost certainly won’t happen, given that Virginia, for example, has the stay-at-home order till June 10th. So I don’t see how the June LSAT’s going to go forward. I believe it will be rescheduled as a Flex, some time within the next month. And if you have a good home environment, and a good internet connection, the Flex is certainly a more pleasant test day experience and removes a lot of the anxiety around going to take it in-person, booking a test center, traveling for it, and such.

Given that some states or cities could keep their stay-at-home orders in place while others loosen them, is LSAT’s policy going to depend on where you’re located? [6:14]

I suspect that they will only administer the LSAT-Flex if most, if not all, states have removed stay-at-home orders. I think only then would they administer it in-person. I think it gets too complicated and messy, and of course allegations of unfairness, if some can take it, others can’t. And then you have people who might want to think about traveling to take it, which is obviously not a great idea, traveling across state lines and such. So I imagine that if the world looks anything at all like it currently does as we speak now in mid- to late-April, I suspect that it will not go forward in June, and possibly not even July, who knows? My personal prediction is that the LSAT-Flex will be around for quite a long time because it’s hard to go backwards on technology and because, given all the ambiguities around a second wave or a third wave of COVID, it might just be easier for them to stick with online.

What about the writing sample portion of the LSAT, that’s now gone? [7:22]

As we discussed last year when the LSAT went digital last July, they moved the writing sample online actually in June, and the writing sample has been online since June, 2019. It’s still online, so that doesn’t change at all, and actually that’s international as well. LSAT-Flex is only in North America right now. But I suspect that if the June international LSAT is canceled, currently scheduled for late June, they’ll administer that as an LSAT-Flex also, because those folks already had their March LSAT canceled, and there’s only so many months that the world’s going to go forward with international students not being able to take the LSAT and apply, and law schools want them too. And as long as they have a good device and good internet, there’s no reason not to allow them as well. I think that the May LSAT-Flex is simply like an initial pilot they’re trying to keep small. As you said, it’s only for those who were taking March or April in North America. But I think beyond, they’ll open it up. And if anyone wants to take it relatively soon, register for June, like I said, because that’ll probably be canceled and moved online.

This is a stressful time, and test-takers by their very nature are stressed individuals. How do you advise test-takers to manage nerves leading up to and during the exam? [8:40]

That’s a great question. I think first and foremost, proper preparation can at least reduce some of the anxiety. So the more practice tests you do in a similar method to the way you’ll do the actual thing (same environment, same testing conditions, same length of exam, all of that), the better. At least you run through the motions enough that the actual test day experience is like just another practice test. And if anything, LSAT-Flex is easier to simulate because you always have access to your home. In fact, you have too much access to your home these days. You’re always there, versus taking it in-person at a test center. It’s not always easy to simulate getting together 50 of your best friends into a room, all taking an exam for three hours. That rarely happens, with some exceptions. So that’s one thing: Simulate it at home, at the same desk, with the same device.

Second thing is: Remember that while the LSAT as a whole is incredibly important, no one particular test day will make or break you. You can always retake, and as you know, law schools don’t average multiple scores. They only take the highest. That should at least lend some comfort.

And the last thing I would say is meditation, mindfulness, focus training, whatever you want to call it. Also pretty easy to do even while you’re isolated and quarantined. Five minutes a day of that focus and strengthening your focus like a muscle can help you if your mind is wandering, if you’re getting bogged down in a question. At least recognize that it’s happening and note it and kind of break out of that cycle or that spiral.

Do you have any tips that are specific to the day before the LSAT-Flex or to the day of the exam? [10:27]

The day before, I wouldn’t do any studying at all. I would relax, take it easy, take a hot bath, watch a movie, go for a walk if you have a suitable environment to do that. Just try to clear your mind and relax. Trust at that point you either know it or you don’t. And then have a good comfortable morning routine for the day of the exam itself, and also try to replicate that even on your practice test dates. Do whatever you would normally do. Drink coffee, don’t drink coffee, exercise or don’t, go for a walk or don’t. Whatever makes you feel good and ready to go.

The last thing I would say about the day of the exam is that, actually, you can select your time of day on LSAT-Flex, which is a really nice perk because not everybody’s a morning person and some test dates were always going to be in the morning. This way you can choose, do you want morning or afternoon? There may even be evening options too. We’ll see what they open up. But having that level of customization to your personal preference could be really nice too, and help you shape your day the way you want it to be.

When will applicants get results from the LSAT-Flex? [11:38]

For the May LSAT-Flex, they’re saying by June 5th, so it’ll be within two weeks, approximately. It used to be three weeks with the in-person, so they’re shortening it already, which they’ve always been able to do but for whatever reason they like to hold on to things and continue doing the number crunching. I’m hoping that with time they will release results faster and faster. My dream is for them to at least give students an estimated or rough approximation of where they stand based on their raw score, which they really should be able to do since it’s a multiple choice test. They should tell you how many did you get right, and they could say, “This might be around a 161 to a 164,” and give you a rough range at least.

Now let’s move away from the LSAT-Flex and talk about the larger situation for law school admissions, and specifically application volume. How do you see COVID-19 affecting law school admissions and specifically application volume? [12:26]

That’s a tough one. We have to think about the extent to which this mirrors previous situations, like most notably the 2008 financial crisis when we saw a massive surge in grad school applications across the board, followed by a tank. So it’s hard to say. I think if this looks to be roughly similar to ’08, then we may see a similar spike as applicants look to wait out any ensuing recession or depression for at least three years. So if this is similar to that, then I think we’ll see a spike in applications for next cycle beginning this fall.

If this is totally a new animal beyond anything else, then it could just lead people to stay home and do nothing. Even if they can’t find a job, they may choose not to invest in law school either. It’s really an open question, but I continue to see engagement among my audience and my students that people are still interested in going. Amidst all the uncertainty right now, I am seeing people holding off on applying this cycle finishing up now, because they don’t want to start law school online in the fall, most of them.

If you’re graduating as an undergraduate senior now, what are you supposed to do? It’s going to be hard to find a job, right? It’s going to be hard to find a job in the middle of 2020, so at least apply, kill a year and study for the LSAT, maybe take it this fall, and then apply, do well in law school, and hopefully the situation will be different. And I think at least amongst the top 14, especially if you’re the top of your class there, you may still have many options available because there are always jobs for, at least, the cream of the crop lawyers.

Alternatively, if you can go to law school for free, or avoid significant debt, it may not be a bad option either. If you get a top LSAT score above the medians of the school and they give you a full ride, that may be a good option.

<!–[if lte IE 8]>

<![endif]–>LSAT Blog, as well as the LSAT Unplugged YouTube channel and Facebook and podcast and Instagram. I’m on all the major platforms, releasing information and updates constantly. I also have books, guides, cheat sheets, courses, etc., both live online as well as on-demand. It’s all online, so easy to access.

]]>Your Guide to Getting off the Waitlist in 2020-2021https://blog.accepted.com/waitlist-updates-advice/
Mon, 11 May 2020 17:45:02 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=38691

The application process is not over for waitlisted applicants. You’ve still got a chance of getting into your dream school. Now’s not the time to slack off, and it’s certainly not the time to give up. Continue fighting for that acceptance! Landing on a waitlist can be a nerve-wracking experience. As a result, sometimes waitlisted...

The application process is not over for waitlisted applicants. You’ve still got a chance of getting into your dream school. Now’s not the time to slack off, and it’s certainly not the time to give up. Continue fighting for that acceptance!

Landing on a waitlist can be a nerve-wracking experience. As a result, sometimes waitlisted applicants let their anxiety or disappointment get the better of them. Many adcom members complain of applicants who react emotionally and behave in ways that are demanding, rude, disrespectful or otherwise inappropriate, either in their emails, calls, or even unscheduled drop-in visits to their offices. There may be 200 or more waitlisted applicants at your school, and these types of responses do not demonstrate perseverance; they reveal immaturity and lack of judgment. This behavior is duly noted and will work against you.

If you are waitlisted, take heart: the school is still very interested in you. You’re still a contender. To maximize your chances of turning your waitlist status into an acceptance, follow the school’s instructions precisely: Send what they ask for, and don’t send what they don’t want.

Your waitlist updates or letter of continued interest (you write those) and letters of support (other people write these) should focus on three areas: your growing list of qualifications, the steps you’ve taken to ameliorate shortcomings, and the ways in which you are the perfect fit for the school.

Your step-by-step guide to writing a waitlist update

Update letters should be short – no more than two pages. Keep the letter focused on what you have accomplished since applying. Here’s what you need to do to create a waitlist letter that will get you OFF the waitlist:

Begin your letter by briefly thanking the school for considering your application.

Reiterate your commitment to the school and your belief that its philosophy and approach fit your educational preferences and goals.

Update your qualifications.

Choose achievements that you did not address in your application and try and tie them back to key themes in your essays. These could include a recent promotion, freshly minted A’s, a new leadership role in a project or organization, a recent volunteer experience, initiatives you’ve taken in your department, business, or club, or additional work responsibilities, etc. What is new and improved since you submitted your application? Ideally, you should relate these new achievements to some of the themes or experiences you addressed in your essays.

Talk about the measures you’ve taken to ameliorate your weaknesses or shortcomings.

Reinforce the idea that you are working to strengthen a weak spot in your profile. Focus on the specific actions you’ve taken rather than on the actual shortcoming. For example, if you have or have had weak communication skills, discuss how you enrolled in Toastmasters and how the experience influenced and inspired you. Examine, identify, and address weaknesses in your education, career, and community life.

Also, if you have plans for additional classes or work but they have not yet taken place, get specific: report when and where you plan to take them, and state your willingness to enroll in any additional courses or follow any additional instructions that the school recommends or provides.

4. Emphasize your fit with the school.

If you are sure that upon acceptance you would attend, inform the school of your commitment. The message you want to get across is this: You were born to attend this school and this school was created just for you. Your fit is as perfect as a cozy glove on a cold hand.

How can you show the school you’re a perfect fit for their program? Prove it by explaining what else you have done to further your knowledge of their program and build your network there. You may already have mentioned in your application or in an interview how the school’s philosophy and approach match your educational preferences and goals, so in a waitlist letter, cite new examples that illustrate this match. For example, if you have visited the campus (post-submission), mention which class you sat in on, who taught it, and what your impressions were.

Similarly, mention recent email exchanges with alumni or students. What new aspect of the program that jives with your interests have you discovered through these connections? Investing in connecting with the school, its students, and resources will help drive home the message that this school is the best place for someone with your post-MBA goals.

MBA admissions directors want waitlisted applicants to show passion, but not obsession. Follow these steps, and you can be sure that schools will respond to this extra personal effort, provided that your sincerity is matched by an equal measure of professionalism and courtesy.

Waitlisters: 2 additional points to consider

A few things to look out for when creating your waitlist update:

Before you start writing, be sure that your target school is open to receiving waitlist letters. If the school states explicitly that it doesn’t want to hear from you, then do not contact them – doing so will only hurt your case.

When you’re at the brainstorming stage of the letter, and then again once you’re done writing, check and then double check that you haven’t repeated material already in your application – you don’t want to waste anyone’s time!

You are so close! Where do you go from here?

Accepted’s admissions experts are ready to help you get off the waitlist and into the school of your dreams. We’ll help you identify areas you can highlight in your waitlist letter, assist with strategy, and help you edit your letter so that you can be sure it makes the best possible case for your admission. Check out our waitlist services and contact us to get started.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect schools and businesses worldwide. The health and safety of testing candidates and staff remain priorities as testing organizations continue to offer online testing while finding ways to safely reopen testing centers. Here is the most up-to-date information on admission tests and their response to coronavirus. GRE ETS is offering...

ETS is offering a GRE General Test at home option everywhere the computer-delivered GRE General Tests is offered, excluding Mainland China and Iran. This option is currently available around the clock every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday through June 30, 2020. Please see here for more information.

The June 8, 2020 LSAT will be replaced with the LSAT-Flex for test takers in the US and Canada. The majority of test takers will test on either Sunday, June 14 or Monday, June 15. A small number of tests will take place during the week based on specific proctoring requirements. Scheduling sign-up for this test will open Wednesday, May 13. More information can be found at here.

In order to accommodate as many MCAT testing candidates as possible, the AAMC is shortening the MCAT being administered from May 29 through the end of the 2020 testing year.

The “seated” time of the exam will be reduced from seven and a half hours to five hours and forty-five minutes. The time was shortened by the elimination or reduction of some of the field test questions and some administrative items, such as the tutorial and the end-of-the-day survey.

Exams will be administered at test centers at 6:30 am. 12:15 pm, and 6 pm each day, with the following health and safety precautions in place:

Examinees will be seated 6 feet (2 meters) apart at the test center.

Examinees may bring masks and gloves to the exam.

There will be enhanced disinfecting procedures at the test centers before and after each seating.

The April 4 national ACT test has been rescheduled to June 13. All students registered for the April 4 test date received an email notifying them of the postponement and instructions for free rescheduling to June 13, July 18, or another national test date. Please visit act.org to learn more.

Be sure your application will get you accepted to the college of your choice! Working one-on-one with one of our admissions specialists will help make that happen.

In order to follow public health guidance and school closures in 192 countries, the SAT and SAT Subject Tests scheduled for June 6, 2020 have been canceled.

If it is safe from a public health standpoint, weekend SAT administrations will begin in August. These tests will take place monthly through the end of 2020. The test calendar will include a new administration on September 26 in addition to the tests already scheduled for August 29, November 7, and December 5. Please see collegeboard.org for more information.

TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition test has been expanded to everywhere TOEFL iBT testing is normally available except for Mainland China and Iran.

All open test centers are frequently cleaning high-touch surfaces and providing test takers with disposable wipes to wipe down their testing areas.

Test takers are allowed to wear surgical masks at the test centers. These will NOT be supplied by the test centers. You must bring your own mask, which must be temporarily removed to have your photo taken and your ID verified during check-in and on returning from breaks.

The online version of the Executive Assessment has the same structure and follows the same scoring algorithm as the traditional version. Currently, appointment dates are available between May 5th and June 30th, and new dates will be added if needed.

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with individual testing companies for the most current information.***

As the information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic changes daily, we are here for you. Accepted’s expert consultants are available via phone, email, and video. Contact us for all of your admissions needs.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>How Much Overlap Can There Be Between My Resume/CV and My SOP?https://blog.accepted.com/how-much-should-i-draw-on-my-cv-resume-in-my-sop/
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:30:00 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=68013

When submitting an application for college or graduate school, it’s important to view the application holistically. The application includes multiple elements, such as a CV/resume, a personal statement, and grades, among other things. Because this application is key to receiving an admissions offer, it is important to be selective and strategic in choosing which elements...

When submitting an application for college or graduate school, it’s important to view the application holistically. The application includes multiple elements, such as a CV/resume, a personal statement, and grades, among other things. Because this application is key to receiving an admissions offer, it is important to be selective and strategic in choosing which elements of your academic career, personal experience, and professional development to highlight.

Many applicants are tempted to use the CV/resume (and if you’re not sure of the difference, see my article HERE) to simply reiterate or re-list their past experiences or qualifications in essay-form for their personal statement. This “resume in prose” undermines the opportunity the application provides for showcasing multiple sides of oneself. So, how do you decide what to cover in the personal statement when it feels like everything you’ve ever done is already included in your CV?

How to decide what to include in your personal statement

Step 1: Do a mental check.

Ask yourself, “What aspects of my life (personal experiences; impactful teachers and classes; substantial extracurricular experience) had a significant impact on my life and outlook?”

I emphasize doing this mentally first because it is easy to turn to your CV or resume as a starting point for writing the personal statement; however, to begin with the CV is to risk overlooking other meaningful but non-CV material worth mentioning in a different part of the application, such as your personal statement. I cannot count the number of clients I have had who, only in the course of our conversations, have shared incredibly powerful experiences and self-insight that I would otherwise never have found written on a resume or CV. These very insights often became central to their personal statements.

Step 2: Identify which achievements and experiences absolutely must be included in your personal statement.

For example, your CV probably (and should!) includes the name of the institution(s) you attended for college (or the name of one’s high school, in the case of college admissions). That institution might be so central to your narrative, or to the story of how you became interested in a particular graduate program or field of study, that it is necessary to include in the personal statement. Other items—the archeological dig you were on in 2015, which was the turning point in your career interests—or the lessons you learned from doing Teach for America last year—might also be great to expand upon in the SOP. Lastly, perhaps counterintuitively, particular weaknesses, such as a short-term job or a weak GPA, should be addressed in the personal statement. Addressing both the strengths and weaknesses of one’s record give YOU the power to frame and contextualize those events and demonstrate your ability to move forward.

By Rachel Slutsky who has as served as a writing tutor, consultant, and adjunct professor teaching writing. Rachel has assisted applicants in applying to an array of MBA and graduate programs. She earned her masters from the University of Chicago and is currently pursuing her PhD at Harvard University. Want Rachel to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

According to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) website, an online remotely-proctored version of the LSAT will be rolled out in May for those who were registered for the April 2020 test. The LSAT-Flex is being introduced to help students deal with the havoc being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. LSAC will make other spring...

Test centers will reopen for in-person LSATs as soon as circumstances allow. Test-takers can rest assured that all required health and safety measures will be in place before any centers reopen.

LSAT-Flex will be available to students with laptop or desktop computers, using either Windows or Mac operating systems. Your computer will need to have a camera and microphone to communicate with the proctor.

Update: April 29

Due to COVID-19, LSAC has canceled the scheduled June 8 in-person LSAT. Test-takers who are registered for the test will be able to take online LSAT-Flex instead. The June LSAT-Flex will be administered over the week of June 14 with a targeted score-release day of June 30.

LSAC has also announced that all registrants for the canceled April 25 in-person test have been automatically registered for an LSAT-Felx exam on the week of May 18. These test takers may chose to switch to a different LSAT date.

What can I expect from the LSAT-Flex experience?

The LSAT-FLEX will be very similar to the standard LSAT. The questions will be the same, but the test will be timed differently. There will be three 35-minute scored sections (instead of the traditional test’s four 35-minute scored sections plus an unscored section). Each LSAT-Flex will consist of one section each of multiple-choice questions in:

Reading comprehension

Analytical reasoning

Logical reasoning

Students who do not already have a writing sample from a prior LSAT should complete the LSAT Writing as soon as possible after taking the LSAT-Flex. Most law schools will not deem your file complete without the LSAT Writing. It is included with your test registration fee and will be accessible in your online account starting the day you take your LSAT-Flex.

The total test should take approximately two hours to complete.

LSAT-Flex scores should be released approximately two weeks after the test. The test will be scored exactly as the standard LSAT is. Since LSAT-Flex questions are actual LSAT questions, LSAC will be able to predict standard LSAT scores (in the range of 120-180). The scores will have a note that the test was administered on-line and remotely proctored.

More LSAT-Flex details to come soon

The exact date and instructions for the May LSAT-Flex will be announced no later than April 17. Test-takers with disabilities who were approved for the April 2020 test date will receive the same or equivalent accommodations for the May LSAT-Flex test.

LSAC is hard at work creating new ways for candidates to take the LSAT and receive their scores in a timely manner.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

According to the ETS website, the TOEFL iBT™ Special Home Edition and GRE™ General Test at-home solutions are now accessible to international test-takers who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These tests are currently available wherever the computer-delivered TOEFL iBT™ and GRE General test are usually available, except for Mainland China and Iran. ETS...

According to the ETS website, the TOEFL iBT™ Special Home Edition and GRE™ General Test at-home solutions are now accessible to international test-takers who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

These tests are currently available wherever the computer-delivered TOEFL iBT™ and GRE General test are usually available, except for Mainland China and Iran. ETS is closely working with NEEFA in Mainland China to help those whose tests were canceled due to the corona pandemic by adding test dates once test centers re-open. ETS is hoping to offer an at-home testing solution in Iran in the very near future.

More about the different at-home test options

There are two types of at-home testing: one using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, and the other using ProctorU’s live human remote proctoring service. Whichever type of test is taken, at-home tests are identical to those taken at a test center, including scoring and pricing. Students will have all of the test features they would expect at a test center, including the ability to review and change answers as well as preview and skip questions.

Registration is now open for test dates through June 2020. There are many test dates and times for students to choose from.

ETS is doing everything possible to be sure that at-home tests meet the ultimate standards for validity, reliability, and security. They employ numerous high-level security measures using real-time human observation and AI technology.

Students can sign in or create an ETS account to register for either the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition Test or the at-home GRE General Test. They can select and pay for their test, after which they will receive an email from ProctorU telling them how to schedule a test date and time.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top master’s and PhD programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, Columbia, Cambridge, Oxford, McGill, HKUST, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

It’s time to check out U.S. News’s latest law school rankings (2021). The rankings are based on expert opinions about the quality of each program and statistical indicators to quantify and measure the quality of a program’s faculty, research, and students. The reputation surveys were sent to academics and professionals in fall 2019 and early...

It’s time to check outU.S. News’s latest law school rankings (2021). The rankings are based on expert opinions about the quality of each program and statistical indicators to quantify and measure the quality of a program’s faculty, research, and students. The reputation surveys were sent to academics and professionals in fall 2019 and early 2020.

This year, for the first time, the specialties of criminal law, constitutional law, business/corporate law, and contracts/commercial law are ranked.

In order to rank each school, U.S. News assessed the data for each quality indicator and then standardized the value of each indicator about its mean. Each indicator has a weight assigned to it, which indicates U.S. News’ judgment about their relative importance, after consulting with experts in the field.

These final scores were rescaled to give the highest-scoring school a score of 100, with the other schools’ scores recalculated as a percentage of the top score. A school with a score of 100 did not necessarily receive the highest score on every indicator, it merely had the highest total score.

Highlights of the 2021 law school rankings

Yale Law School continues to be ranked #1 by U.S. News, while Stanford and Harvard maintained the second and third spots. Columbia Law School gained in the rankings, jumping from #5 last year to a tie for fourth place this year with the University of Chicago.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>Applying to Law School During the Coronavirus Pandemichttps://blog.accepted.com/applying-to-law-school-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:30:00 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=67776

On behalf of Accepted, I hope that you and your family are staying physically and mentally healthy during these scary and uncertain times. “Normally,” at this point in the law school application cycle, future law students are thinking about admitted student days, what being placed on the waitlist means, and potential reasons why they haven’t...

On behalf of Accepted, I hope that you and your family are staying physically and mentally healthy during these scary and uncertain times. “Normally,” at this point in the law school application cycle, future law students are thinking about admitted student days, what being placed on the waitlist means, and potential reasons why they haven’t heard back from Law School X yet with a decision.

Shifting your expectations during a “nothing is normal” pandemic

No one could have predicted a pandemic would impact your process as it has, yet here we are. Putting everything into perspective, nothing is “normal” right now and priorities are staying safe physically and mentally. That said, let’s try to unpack how to proceed.

Dealing with and adapting along with admissions offices during COVID-19

The March LSAT was canceled. Likely, many who are currently in the application cycle were not impacted, but I know a few of you are and were. I have a client in that situation, and the client emailed the admissions offices to explain the situation, and staff members are understanding, saying that the April LSAT will be accepted. Thus, offices are working and adapting alongside you.

For those who have been admitted and were scheduling visits to schools, first, congratulations! Recognize that on-campus activities are being canceled so that in-person, kicking-the-tires evaluation is going to change. Law schools are moving to online instruction for current students, and admissions offices are adapting to changes in the moment as well.

Be patient.

Admissions staff are human, facing the same pandemic stress that you and your family are, and believe me, they are keeping you in mind as well. They do not wish to add stress to you during this stressful time – return the favor. They are doing their best to answer questions, provide updates, and move a comprehensive on-campus admitted student day to an online version.

Questions about the law school waitlist in the times of coronavirus

For those on the waitlist, the question of “How does your waitlist normally work? How many applicants do you take off the waitlist normally?” will not apply this year. Nothing is normal, so maybe don’t ask that. Know that in these uncertain times, waitlist movement will also be uncertain. When working in admissions and evaluating waitlist decisions/predictions, I always considered the “life happens” changes. Admitted students who deposit and intend to come to law school, sometimes will decide to not attend law school for “life happens” reasons. This summer, more than others perhaps, may be impacted by students deciding to stay home and defer for a year – who knows?

So, what do you do?

Be patient.

Be mindful of nothing being normal, and ask offices periodically, “Are you going to the waitlist? Do you anticipate making waitlist decisions soon?” But do not ask now; wait until the end of May at the earliest.

Waiting for a decision during these uncertain times

Are you waiting for a decision? Again, patience is paramount. Admissions offices are adjusting to changing times and trying to keep business moving forward. You will get a decision; it just may take a little more time. Again, these are not normal times and admissions offices are adjusting with you.

Be part of the change

I have heard from so many law school applicants over the years that they were looking to go to law school to make change happen and give voice to the voiceless. Here is an opportunity to walk-the-walk. Please practice patience and good judgment, take care of yourself, and adapt to these changing times as best you can.

On behalf of my colleagues at Accepted, we wish you and your loved ones health and peace of mind as we navigate these unprecedented times. Be in touch and work one-on-one with an advisor who will guide you and counsel you through any step of the law school admissions process. Explore our services here.

Christine Carr is a Harvard graduate with over 15 years of admissions experience, including nine years as Associate Director of Admissions at Boston University School of Law. She has read over 10,000 personal statements and counseled thousands of prospective applicants through the application process Want Christine to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Due to the sweeping effects of the coronavirus, ETS will be temporarily offering an option to take the GRE General Test at home. This option will be available in selected countries and is for students who, due to public health concerns, cannot take the GRE General Test at a test center. Who will be able...

Due to the sweeping effects of the coronavirus, ETS will be temporarily offering an option to take the GRE General Test at home. This option will be available in selected countries and is for students who, due to public health concerns, cannot take the GRE General Test at a test center.

Who will be able to take the GRE General Test at home?

The option to take the test at home is available to those who live in an area where the test is offered. As of March 23. 2020 (13:00 UCT), home tests are available in the United States, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong (China), and Macau (China).

What equipment is required for the at-home exam?

You have computer equipment that meets the requirements for the test:

Desktop/laptop computer

Cannot be a Mac computer or use an iOS operating system

Must have Windows OS, versions 10, 8, 7, Vista™, or XP

Must use a standard QWERTY keyboard

Must have a speaker to hear proctor

Cannot use a headset or wireless earphones

Must have an internal or external microphone that is not part of a headset to communicate with the proctor

Must have a built-in camera or a separate webcam

Camera must be able to move in order to show the proctor a 360-degree view of the room, including your tabletop surface, prior to the test.

How must one prepare their at-home testing room?

You must have a room that provides an acceptable environment for the test.

You must be in the room alone. No one may enter the room during the test.

You are not permitted to take the test outdoors or in a public place.

You must have your computer and keyboard on a tabletop surface.

The tabletop and area around it must be clear of any items not approved for use during the test.

You must sit in a standard chair. You may not sit or lie on a bed, couch, or overstuffed chair.

Food and drinks are not allowed during the test.

Your ears must remain visible during the test.

You must be suitably dressed for the test. Your proctor will monitor you via your camera during the test and your photo will be sent to schools that receive your scores.

You may ONLY take notes using a whiteboard with erasable marker or paper with clear sheet protector and erasable marker.

The proctor will watch you erase all notes at the end of the test.

Next steps

To see if you meet ETS’s requirement to take the test at home, visit https://www.ets.org/s/cv/gre/at-home/. Once “approved,” you will need to install the ETS secure browser and register with ETS.

Your scores will be available in your ETS account and sent to your chosen schools 10-15 days after your test date.

What about the GRE’s competitors?

Both GMAC and LSAC announced this week that they are moving towards a remote proctoring option. GMAC plans to have it in place by mid-April. LSAC has not announced an estimated date when the remote option will be available.

The GRE is accepted widely today by almost all graduate business schools in addition to the GMAT, which had dominated business school admissions until about 10 years ago.

A growing number of law schools accept the GRE as well as the LSAT. Acceptance of the GRE among law schools will accelerate if it is the only option available for law school applicants.

Will you be taking the GRE at home or preparing to take it at a test center? Wherever you will be taking the GRE, check out our GRE prep tips to get a score that will get you ACCEPTED! Additionally, now is a great time to focus on building your admissions strategy. Take a look at our services and take advantage of our personalized, remote, virtual one-on-one counseling.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Woken awakes you to meaningful career opportunities [Show summary] Are you wondering what your career path should be? How to create it? Our guest today is an NYU Stern MBA and associate-certified coach who also serves as a consultant for the Career Design Lab at Columbia. In addition, she is the founder and CEO of Woken,...

Our guest today, Rachel Serwetz, graduated from Binghamton University after majoring in human development and minoring in Spanish, management, and global studies. She then worked for Goldman Sachs for three years, followed by shorter stints at other companies, and earned her MBA at NYU Stern in technology in 2019. She also founded Woken, way back in May, 2013, and has served as its CEO ever since.

Let’s talk a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up? What do you like to do for fun? Things like that. [3:35]

I grew up in Long Island, New York, in Hewlett, a very exciting place. I’ve got a few jobs at the moment, so with my limited time outside of work, honestly I wish it was more exciting, but I try to just really hang out with family and friends, work out when I can, explore the city, travel. I wish there were times that I could fit in some more interesting hobbies, but work has sort of taken over this.

Let’s go back a little bit to your time at Goldman Sachs. Were you in a HR role there? Obviously that’s your focus now, but did you start out in HR? Were you an investment banker at Goldman Sachs? What were you doing there? [4:10]

So that was my first job, and I was in operations. I did cash management, I was part of the treasury and the liquidity team. And that doesn’t have much to do with what I do now. And it wasn’t really what I necessarily had an interest in, but when I started, I knew I liked the idea of operations. In hindsight, I think I probably should have gone more for those HR-type teams and path. But at the time I didn’t really know that that was right for me. So I was able to land in operations, and it was a really good experience, but I was lucky at that point to take on projects that ended up relating to HR.

But I took on those projects just because I found them interesting, I wanted to help our teammates develop skills, and to coach them and to help with recruiting, and so I just dove into things that seemed interesting to me. And then after a few years of doing that, I realized I was ready for the next thing, and I realized that a lot of what I had been doing was in the HR realm. And so I was lucky to be able to pivot more closely into that world after I left Goldman.

Did you go back to NYU Stern for your MBA to get specifically more training in, let’s say, career services and HR, or was there another goal? And if you were so interested in HR, why did you go for the one-year tech degree? HR isn’t known as the most techie of fields. [5:37]

There are a few answers to this. First and foremost, I always knew I wanted an MBA. I actually took my GMAT at my senior year of college. I wasn’t a business major; I just had this intuition that I really just wanted more education, and I had a strong interest in business. I didn’t really know where it would lead, or where I’d be at the time of getting that degree, but I just really knew there was more for me, and I knew I had that business orientation, even though it didn’t end up being my major. So I knew from early on that I wanted that experience.

Once I had ended up working more in HR, and learning about coaching and developing that, that’s when I started really getting interested in the problems I was helping people with when I was coaching. I was helping with career exploration, and I started to get interested in, how can I assist them at size and scale, and create products out of what I was doing. And that’s when I started to say, “Okay, I can combine my interests in coaching and career exploration with products and technology, creating a business concept out of that.” I had known I wanted the MBA, but then I found the tech MBA program, and it just seemed like this perfect mix of everything I wanted.

Linda: Are you, on some level, taking an operations approach to career management?

Yes. So it’s funny because, when I was at Bridgewater, they use a lot of digital tools to systematize people-oriented processes. Over there, it’s very much focused on feedback. But when I was there, I saw how they use tools to think about people processes, and that’s when my wheels started turning, because I’ve been helping people with career exploration ever since I graduated. So once I saw the problems people were facing, and then I saw how technology can really support people-oriented processes, I just started to explore, how can I systematize a process that I’m guiding people through manually, in a way that they can feel empowered to take these steps in their career on their own. So it’s a coaching perspective. It’s a coaching approach, by leveraging technology to facilitate a process for the individual.

The tech MBA that you did it at NYU Stern is a one-year program. Are you happy you had this tech focus, and did the one-year timeframe seem very pressurized? Did you have any second thoughts about pursuing the one-year as opposed to the two-year program? [8:29]

Am I happy I did this tech program? Yes. I think tech is the way of the future for every company. I think almost every company is becoming a tech company, whether they want to or not. And so, to me, it just felt like learning about the future of business, no matter what. I felt that was great, especially for me trying to build a tech business. So I was really happy to leverage that program.

Thinking back to the one-year versus the two-year, of course there was pressure, but what’s funny is that I came out of that one-year with this new mindset of, you have to make the most of every single day, because we were jam-packing two years of value into one year’s time. So now I’ve got this amazing mindset of, live your life every day.

Yes, there was pressure to get so much done. I don’t regret it. I was able to save a little money on the time, and I think I got a lot out of it. You never know what would have happened with the second year. There’s so much that probably could have and would have happened, but I think I had an amazing MBA experience. I loved my cohort and yeah, I don’t have any regrets.

Do you remember anything particularly challenging about the MBA application process itself? What was the hardest part for you? [10:00]

It’s funny, even the undergrad application process was stressful for me. The part that I think was just most stressful was just the administrative nature of it. Just getting it all done, and one application felt like so much work that I wish I could have applied some more places, but I was so exhausted by the process that I only really ended up applying to very, very few places.

It’s a lot to do. It’s overwhelming. What’s funny is the essay itself was less of what was overwhelming for me, because if I’m in the career clarity game, you would hope I have some myself, and I did, and I do. So that part wasn’t as hard, but it was just a lot. It’s overwhelming, they say the hardest part’s getting in, right?

Right. On some level, that’s true. Did you just make a schedule for yourself, make a list? How did you handle the time demands or, what did you do? [11:00]

I actually did apply two years in a row to a few different schools, that’s number one. And I always remind people that that’s okay. And what else did I do? I had some schedules. I tried to organize myself. I leveraged Accepted and it was super, super helpful, especially on the essay help. And honestly I just did my best to get as few applications done as I could. I was just like, “Just get one done,” or, “Just get two done,” and manage through it.

What did you like most about your MBA experience in NYU Stern? [11:39]

The people I was with were just so amazing. We had this small cohort, as part of the one-year program, and somehow there was still such diversity within our group. It felt like we were each a piece of a puzzle and I was the token HR person in our class. It was just so amazing to come together with a group who had a similar mindset and interest in innovation and technology and business, but different experiences and backgrounds, and different mindsets, and different perspectives on various things. So to be aligned with a cohort in terms of why we were there, and being able to have just stimulating conversations about lots of topics, was what I was there for. And there was a culture about our class that was just truly amazing.

Linda: Could you describe the culture?

Yeah, I think our class was a down to earth group who was just genuinely and deeply interested in the future of business, and innovation, and society, and where tech plays in. Does it play in, what are the impacts, how do we go about this? What is it already doing, and what is it not doing? What should it do, and when and how and why? And just really questioning all those things. It was just our shared interest, and yet we approached it in different ways. There was different ways that that played out, different industries that we were interested in. And yet there was a shared common feeling of, let’s question this stuff, together, and how it impacts our future in business and society, and all this stuff. So being a part of that conversation for a year was really cool and really special. And there was just a genuine bond amongst everyone. We also got along super well and had a lot of fun, and traveled, and did so many fun things together and just got along really well. So that’s invaluable.

What would you like to have seen improved about your MBA experience? [13:37]

We were the first year of the tech MBA, so we were guinea pigs, and there were certain things, of course, that weren’t perfect, but we knew that going in. We were able to laugh at certain things, when it didn’t go perfectly well. It’s hard for a new program to figure out the best way of teaching business students about technology — that’s not easy with a mixed variety of skills within technology. So there were challenges that we all had to come together on. For me, I was starting a business. So how do you teach somebody about business, and yet how do you teach somebody how to start a business, run a business? That’s what I was there for, and that’s not easy to execute on.

I try to teach entrepreneurship now, to undergraduate students and it’s not easy to do, but it’s also not easy to teach. I tried to grasp as much as I could, and I’m still learning. There’s always things you look back and say, “All right, I wish I focused more on this. I wish I learned more about that.” But I think, for as much as I could have gotten out of the one year, I tried to get as most as humanly possible. I leveraged every entrepreneurship program at NYU. So I did my best to take advantage of everything I could.

Can you tell us about Woken? What is it? How does it work? We’ve skirted around the edges of that, but can you tell us? Dive in? [14:56]

Woken is a web-based career exploration platform. We help guide professionals through a step-by-step process to figure out which career path they actually want to pursue.

The steps are based in learning and reflection, and that’s an iterative process, and that really leads somebody to find clarity and confidence in which path is right for them, which path they’ll be happy in, which path suits them. Whatever phrase you want to use, but we just see so many young working professionals, sometimes mid-career professionals, who are in the wrong spot, they’re in the wrong role, the wrong company, the wrong industry, and sometimes so drastically far from where they know they should be, or could be, but they don’t know what they want, or how to figure out what they want.

We just try to make that process easy and manageable, and hopefully fun and enjoyable, and give you the tools and the process so you can reach that outcome of clarity.

How did you think of this idea? [16:05]

It’s been a long time coming, in the works, so to speak because ever since I graduated, well even before I graduated, I was actively trying to figure out how to figure out my own career. How to land the Goldman? I did a ton of networking to think about job search myself. And then once I landed there I was referred to tons of friends, and friends of friends, to help them with their career journeys.

So over the years I was seeing the problems people were facing, and I realized they were struggling with job search because they didn’t know what job they wanted. And when you’re asked for help over the years, you come up with solutions, you come up with frameworks, and you’ve come up with ways of helping people. I was naturally good at it, and that just spiraled, and it builds on itself over time.

So, that helped me develop some frameworks. And then I got coaching training, so I learned the fundamentals of how to really help somebody achieve goals. And then I started exploring, what could this look like as a web platform. And how could we give somebody a tool to guide them through this process. So, it just keeps growing and developing and enhancing itself over time. It’s just been organic.

So if I were a young professional, struggling to figure out what I want to do, and I can remember a time when that was exactly what I was, I was probably a senior in college, and I had decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer, but I didn’t know what I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do. What should I have been thinking about? If I went to Woken, what would I pay? What would I do? What would I find? I want to use it. [17:21]

Our first step is helping you commit to the process. How is this going to fit into your life? Because it does take time. And then we really start by reflecting on your interests. So we have an assessment. It really just helps you think about what it is that you love doing, what types of content you love, things like that. We’ll tease that out in several ways. From there, we make sense of those interests when we actually translate your interest into potential roles and industries. So right away we’ve got options that directly relate to things you’re interested in.

And then, from there, we want you to learn more about those options. So we would guide you through different steps, ideally bite sized steps, that’s where you’re doing research, networking as a way to learn, and experiential learning, as well as work selection. Then it becomes an ongoing learning process, and as you’re learning, we’re helping you process what you’re learning and what it means and what to do about it. It’s a fluid process. You might learn about things you really like and things you don’t like. So we learn, and we reflect, and we iterate, over a few weeks or a few months, and that’s really what leads our clients to say, “Okay, I think I know which path I want to go pursue.”

Are you meeting with clients, or is it all online? Is it at all an automated process or is there some combination of online filling out forms, and feedback, and then human intervention? [19:03]

We want to use technology where it works, but we definitely don’t want to over-engineer or automate things that shouldn’t be automated. So we leverage technology to say, “Here’s your platform, here are the resources, here’s what you need to do.” But we’ve got myself as a coach, behind the scenes, reviewing the work that you’re doing and supporting you. So I’m still there checking in, answering questions, making sure you feel supported, accountable, motivated, and really answering your questions and helping you think through everything you’re doing. It’s a combination of both.

How have NYU Stern’s resources helped you with Woken or have they? [19:52]

There is a ton at NYU for entrepreneurship, so we leveraged the Leslie eLab for a bootcamp. We were part of the Stern Venture Fellowship over the summer. We participated in the Berkeley Lab $300K competition. We were part of the Tandon School competition intervention. We have leveraged so many different resources. I did classes and clubs, you name it. I could probably go on. Mentors. There was just so much, and I did as much as humanly possible when I was there, because this was my focus at school. They provided me with resources and knowledge, and workshops, and connections, and guidance, for the early stages of, “What can I do to begin?” and, “How can I get this off the ground?”

So when you were in NYU Stern, you already had started Woken. I think online I saw it started in 2013, right? [20:54]

The technology aspect of it. Basically the spring before I started the tech MBA. While I had been coaching people for years, the productization of it was newer to the process. So I was toying around with, “How do I start this company?” And we visualized our first prototype, the spring of 2018, so two years ago. And that was a few months prior to starting at Stern. I started in May, 2018, so I was doing my best to start beforehand, and then by going and attending Stern, I really was able to get even more resources, more support, more momentum to push forward.

Now on one hand, Stern was giving you all these tools and all these resources. On the other hand, it also takes time to pursue an MBA, right? How did you manage the demands of b-school and running a business? And you’re now out of school, but your business is not supporting you entirely, so you have multiple jobs. One is as a professor at the University of Binghamton, that we’ve discussed. You also mentioned to me before we went live that you’re working with Columbia Business School’s career services. So let’s do the b-school thing first, and then the second chapter. [21:46]

So, how did I manage the time? Well, an MBA in general is a game of prioritization and choosing your time wisely, especially in the one year. So, that was already there. And so, while my peers were recruiting, I was building a company. It was long days, every day was packed. But we wanted to gain that value anyway. So it was just a matter of how you choose your time. Before I had any clients, I was able to really decide the pace of the business, and how much we spent on it, and how fast we wanted to grow. The minute we started having clients, that changed a bit. And so the spring semester of my MBA, my peers will tell you I was a little more checked out then the fall. It’s all about choices, and that, I think, is one of the biggest lessons an MBA will teach you.

And so now how do I manage it all? We are a startup that is bootstrapping. So that means that I am bootstrapping myself, I support myself with different jobs, and the company was able to actually earn some money through different programs, right? So we’re just continuing to the best that we can. But of course our resources determine our pace. And so I just manage it all. I wish there was a better answer, but I just balance it all to the best of my ability.

Did you choose not to go for outside funding, or did that just not work out for you? [23:55]

I’ve never tried. In the MBA program, I tried to learn what to do and what not to do. And there’s a lot of horror stories that you will hear about raising institutional money. And I do think that that’s something that we will do. It’s just, from what I learned, many people will tell new founders, “As long as you can to be on your own, be on your own,” as long as you can build, and gain momentum, and make progress and provide value, and do the things you’re supposed to be doing, then do it, right, because investment brings in other factors. So that’s our goal right now, is to push forward as much as we can. And the rest will come down the line.

What top tips can you give listeners who are trying to clarify their professional goals before pursuing graduate education? I’m a big believer that every graduate student should have a professional goal. Grad school is not a place to discover yourself. There is a small percentage that can pursue a graduate degree just for personal interest, but most people can’t afford it, either the time or the money. So let’s deal with the 99% of people who are doing it because they want to get some professional benefit out of it. How do you determine what your goal should? Anyway, I know that’s your whole business, so I don’t expect you to do the whole thing, but, top tips? [24:46]

I agree with you. I always say that an MBA is a really expensive way to figure out your goal or your path. And I would say, if you’re going to do that experience, know what you want out of it, know why you’re there, know what your career clarity is. I’m happy to talk about how to get there, but I just really want to reiterate that, that you can find career clarity before you go, and you should, because you want to leverage this experience in the right ways. Leverage the time, leverage the classes, the clubs, the recruiting, in a way that will serve you. By having done the exploration beforehand, it will make everything else just so much better, and so much more worth the time and the money.

That being said, for career clarity, I take an interest-based approach. I believe that if you care about what you’re doing and you’re interested in it, you’ll be more successful and engaged in your job, and happy in your job. So think about your interests, think about what you love doing. And then secondarily, what types of content areas do you love? I like to separate those two, because one relates to the roles, and the second relates to the industries. And so reflect on your interests, and then think about, “What real world opportunities allow me to do those things, or be in those environments, or solve those problems, or act in that same vein?” So continue to reflect on those things, have some options in mind, and simply learn and reflect. If you can learn and reflect iteratively, you will reach a point of clarity and confidence. And if you’re not at 100% clarity yet, you haven’t learned enough, or reflected enough.

And to the extent you can, keep doing those two things. If you have multiple options, there’s going to be differences between those options. Learn. The more you can learn about those differences, the more you will realize which one’s better or worse for you. Research, networking, experiential learning and reflection. Those are the core steps. But approach those, use those steps as a way of learning, and then reflect, and stay fluid. If you learn about things you like, or you don’t like, just continue to get closer and closer and closer to what you think you want. And then, Steve Jobs says, “You’ll know when you find it, you’ll know when you get there.” So it’s a feeling, and you have to keep pursuing it with persistence and patience, until you know you’ve reached that outcome.

It seems like researching and figuring out what is a good field and a good industry for you is foundational, and really, really important. Can you give us some examples of good ways to do that exploration? [28:02]

Absolutely. So we will just start by a little bit of online researching. That can only get you so far, but it’s a great place to start when you’re first considering different options. There’s a lot of information out there, but it’s not always the real nuanced information. Then you really just want to hear from real people. The issue from hearing from real people is that you also want to connect the dots across companies, because one person might say one thing, and the other might say another. So if you can talk to five, 10, 20, 30 professionals in the options that you’re considering – that might be all it takes, 20 people – and that does take time. But that’s not crazy. The ROI on doing that is, if these are prospective employers, is so worth it. So talk to professionals, ask them lots of questions, just genuinely learn, what are the jobs like, what are the companies like, what are the industries like ask, treat it like a research project.

And then as you do that learning, if you think, “Okay, I think I want to pursue this path,” how can you gain some experience? Could you shadow somebody? Could you do an online course? Could you actually do a project where you start to do that type of work, and you make sure you actually really like it? And of course there’s reflection throughout this whole process, because you may learn about things or try things that you do or don’t like. So continuously stay fluid in what does that mean as you’re learning? It sounds simple, but if you commit to that process for roughly about three months, you just wouldn’t believe the outcomes and the insights, and the relief, and the excitement you could feel by the end of putting in that effort.

Linda Abraham: It’s also important to realize what you don’t like. Sometimes people try something and they don’t like it and they’re very disappointed, but actually it’s a very valuable lesson. If you learn that after you’ve done your MBA, or after you’ve gone to medical school, after you’ve gone to law school, it’s an extremely expensive lesson. I’m talking about doing that learning before you make a major commitment. I’m glad you mentioned that.

I see so many people who’ve gotten a graduate degree, sometimes two graduate degrees, sometimes working in careers for years on end, knowing that they don’t like it, putting in time and money. There are opportunity cost of what you’re doing, and each person has such amazing potential. So, where should your potential, your time and energy go? I see so many people who have wasted so much time and money. So that’s what pains me, and I don’t want people to do that.

Linda Abraham: Right. I can remember a couple friend of ours years ago, who as a result of parental pressure, became lawyers. Both of them didn’t want to do it, didn’t like it at all. And I’m not saying it was entirely wasted because obviously they learned something valuable, but it was not worth three years and whatever the tuition was at that time. And I think in both cases they also practiced for a little bit, which they also didn’t like. Yeah, they did it, but it was such a waste.

Yes. I think about the reason that people go into the wrong paths, and I think that, from a young age, we lack the right information. We lack the right support. We also have pressures, whether it’s on ourselves or from other people. There are so many reasons of why we might be directed in the wrong ways. That’s unfortunate, and we’re trying to do our best to fix that and get ahead of that, but it’s real. There are several reasons of why this is happening today, and right now we’re serving, sometimes it’s a bandaid approach to help people fix that. We want to help people from the beginning, but often that’s not the case, just for all these different reasons.

But to the extent you can really try your best to remove what feels like pressure from others, and really just focus on yourself, because the only person that matters in the end of the day is you, as an individual. What is your journey? You’re the one who’s going to do the work and get paid to do it and feel the feelings of either you hate it or love it, or somewhere in between. And you’re the person that matters.

And of course sometimes we have responsibilities to take care of our family, but I always say the most secure path is the one that you’re the most interested in, because I believe that that drives even more success than the path that you think is secure, and end up hating and not doing well at. So you have to really think about the impacts of these choices, and why you’re making the choices.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [33:03]

I think I shared a lot with you about what it is that I believe in. I just want everyone to know, it sounds fluffy, but it is possible to actually enjoy your job. And the reality is, we see people who hate their jobs and who think that that’s what work is, but it takes up too much time in our life to have it any other way. And if 85% of employees are disengaged at work, and 15% are engaged, that means 100% could be engaged at work. It’s just we have to figure out how those people got there, and how you can get there.

So just take your life into your own hands and figure out what you need to get you there, and really know what it is that you want, and what you deserve, what you think work should feel like. And just question that journey for yourself, versus looking around you and seeing what you think other people are accepting as the status quo, or what paths they’re pursuing, especially in an MBA program. There’s three paths people think they can pursue.

But the MBA is such an amazing place to pivot. So figure out what it is you care about, and then it’s somewhere in the world. Everything is an option to you, so what is it that you care about? What problems do you want to solve, and who else is solving them and thinking about them and how can you go join them? It’s as simple as that, but you have to open yourself up to that question.

Linda Abraham: So questioning, that questioning is valid. Whether you’re thinking of an MBA or an MD or a JD or the whole alphabet soup of graduate degrees. Or career paths, period. Maybe you don’t need the graduate degree. Maybe your career path is one where you can be perfectly happy and achieve your professional and life goal, personal goals, without a graduate education.

I help people reposition themselves and pivot without a graduate degree. Yes, you need to ask yourself, “What do I want? Is a degree necessary to get there? If it’s not necessary, do I still want the experience or not?” But figure out what you want first. Don’t just see a degree as a way out, or a way to choose a path. Yes, it is a path, but learn about that path before you invest the time and the money. Especially, all of this will also make your applications and your essays a million times easier, and the job search, because if you know where you want to go and why, your essay wrote itself. Your interview speaks for itself. The candidate who knows what they want and why they’re there is the person that I believe gets hired. That’s all. That’s the bottom line.

You’ve completed most of your application. Now it’s time to write your personal statement. You want your statement to stand out from the rest, and the way to do this is to tell a compelling story – the tale of your greatest achievements, dreams, and challenges. You can tell a compelling story by tying together...

You’ve completed most of your application. Now it’s time to write your personal statement. You want your statement to stand out from the rest, and the way to do this is to tell a compelling story – the tale of your greatest achievements, dreams, and challenges.

You can tell a compelling story by tying together the following key elements:

Storytelling element #1: Create a killer opening

Start with something that will grab the reader’s attention from the get-go. This will ensure that they keep reading enthusiastically. Usually this is something in a scene or moment in the middle of the action. Starting an essay by saying “One day I decided to watch TV” will probably leave your reader not really caring what happened next, even if that leads to the most important part of the essay. However, starting your essay with “The moment I found the lump, I suspected that my life was about to change forever” will surely draw your reader in.

Storytelling element #2: Set context

‘“It was mid-July 2011. I was a busy consultant at McKinsey’s Chicago office, the proud father of a boy about to turn one, and a generally happy guy in his mid-20s.”

Context (person, place, time) is important because readers want to understand the story’s circumstances; it helps them relate to the story, even if they’ve never been in that situation.

Storytelling element #3: Introduce the stakes

The above also shows the reader what’s at stake. Stakes further help the reader relate to a story – if there’s little for the main character to lose, then the reader won’t care much about what happens next. If you never figured out the source of the lump and treated it (if necessary), then you wouldn’t have been able to continue your life as a busy consultant, proud father, and generally happy guy. You don’t need huge stakes for people to relate to your story; but effective stakes are something most of us would fight for, like health, a job, our community’s welfare, and the like.

Storytelling elements #4 and #5: Outline the obstacles AND Demonstrate strength of character

“It was tempting to wish the lump would just go away, and for a few days that was my strategy. I didn’t even tell my wife. But soon I recognized that knowledge is power, and made an appointment with my doctor. Within a week I had a diagnosis: cancer.”

This keeps the reader interested because it brings in two new elements: an obstacle (cancer) and character (your personality traits).

By this point in the story, your readers will know that you are the main character – you’re the consultant, father, etc. But the text above shows your reader what kind of character you are: one who is human (tempted to wish something bad away) but also one who takes action in adverse circumstances (going to the doctor).

Character isn’t only about positive traits. Many essay questions ask you to discuss a time you failed or made a mistake. For those, you need to highlight negative traits upfront (e.g., keeping the lump a secret), but in the context of how you gained insights and ultimately more positive attributes from dealing with their consequences.

<< Work with an admissions pro to create a personal statement that gets you accepted to your dream school! Click here to get started >>

Storytelling element #6: Add a twist

So, what happens next in our tale? (Incidentally, a well-told story uses these elements to make readers ask this question again and again, pulling them through the story.)

“Once I got past the initial shock, I discovered an unexpected challenge: choosing among major surgery, two rounds of chemotherapy, and ‘surveillance’ (i.e. regular testing to see if the cancer was spreading). The options had the exact same survival rate (very high), but very different side-effect profiles. For example, the surgery was associated with potential nerve damage, while the chemo could have resulted in lower lung capacity.”

This part of our story includes a twist and further obstacles. Twists, or surprise turns in stories – in this case, the challenge of choosing treatment – aren’t essential to grad school essays, but they certainly make them more engaging: a teammate with a secret, a client’s abrupt shift in expectations, etc. In this story, the twist also represented an obstacle, in that our courageous subject had to choose from three very different treatments with similar levels of effectiveness.

Storytelling element #7: Detail the process

Here’s what happened next:

“It was time for some deep research: with my wife’s help and inputs from my oncologist and other doctors, I pored over journal articles and other materials to understand my treatment options and their risks. For example, we learned that the surveillance course could take over five years before one could consider themselves cancer-free.”

Here we can see the process – the exact steps he took to approach the obstacle. Too many applicants leave out their process. You need to tell the adcom what you did, how you did it, and ideally how you engaged others to overcome the challenge as well. Even our cancer story here includes a team element (the wife and doctors).

Storytelling elements #8 and #9: Share the outcome AND Talk about lessons learned

“After weeks of research and deliberation, I opted for two rounds of outpatient chemotherapy. I said goodbye to my hair and hello to needles and nausea. The first week went well. But as I neared the second, my doctor called: the chemo had pushed my white blood cell count too low, compromising my immune system. I would have to wait. For two weeks I avoided raw fruits and vegetables and stayed inside as much as possible. My white blood cell count rose, and I completed the second week of chemo.

“Now, over eight years later, I’m considered cured, a survivor. The only physical residue of my treatment is slightly wavier hair. But the experience reinforced the importance of a proactive approach (I found out most men wait over six months to get lumps checked), of careful due diligence in health and other matters, and of never giving up. I carry those lessons into everything I do. So, I was right: the lump changed my life in a big way; but I never could have guessed how positive those changes would be.”

The last part of our story brings more process (how our survivor made a decision) and another twist (his low white blood cell count), along with the outcome and lessons learned. These last two elements typically tie together: the outcome (surviving cancer) reinforced multiple lessons, as noted above. It’s easy to spend too little (i.e. none) or too much (i.e. paragraphs) time on lessons learned; generally, 1-3 lines gets the job done.

It’s always recommended to wrap up your story by returning to your opening, to end with a killer ending with a broader theme or key realization or glimpse of the future.

Our story has just over 400 words, but it has all the important elements.

Do you need help writing your attention-grabbing story? Check out our 1-on-1 services for more information on how we can help you use story elements to write essays that will draw in the adcom and get you ACCEPTED.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give you regarding your personal statements and application essays is this: Show, don’t tell. But you may have been given this advice before and you may be wondering how to go about it. Let’s dive into how to show effectively. Here are four tips to...

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give you regarding your personal statements and application essays is this: Show, don’t tell.

But you may have been given this advice before and you may be wondering how to go about it. Let’s dive into how to show effectively.

Here are four tips to help you achieve this essential writing goal:

Show the steps you’ve taken.

If you are writing about a goal you achieved or a project you completed, providing the step-by-step process you followed will add depth and validity to your claims. “Within six months I was promoted to Junior Account Manager” is not nearly as compelling as spelling out the specific measures you took to obtain the recognition that landed you your fast-tracked promotion.

Similarly, don’t just tell the adcom that you have overcome your weakness of procrastination; instead, show them by giving concrete examples of specific things you’ve done to become a more efficient person.

Provide examples of strengths and skills.

You say that you are creative, mature, and an excellent leader. But how? What have you done specifically and what impact have you made on your teammates/co-workers/company/community/world-at-large? Saying that you’re creative won’t cut it; instead, share a story or paint a picture (with words) that truly depicts the creative workings of your mind.

Offer relevant, compelling details whenever possible.

Your story of success will be more believable and more memorable if you provide a few details. Remember, when showing instead of just telling about your achievements, your readers are going to want to see a picture of who you are and what you’ve done.

Add vibrant details – talk about the number of people on your team; the amount of money you raised; the eager and nervous feelings you experienced while launching your new product; the fear you felt, followed by the extreme remorse, and then the resolve to do better that you experienced when you botched a project – all these details will add color and vitality to the picture you’re painting for the adcom.

Tell a story that reveals your strengths.

Admissions committee readers are human beings and like all human beings they love a good story. One of the best ways to make a point is with a story that illustrates it.

A good story has a problem with some emotion or tension, a main character who addresses and sometimes struggles with the problem, and a resolution. For application essays that resolution usually shows how the main character, typically the applicant, solved the problem, benefited others, and restored emotional equilibrium.

If you can tell a story that includes the steps you took, reveals your strengths, and keeps the reader engaged with juicy detail and a certain level of tension regarding the outcome, your essay is well on its way to enhancing your admissions chances.

What’s “telling”? Boastful claims like, “I am a team leader” or “I have excellent communication skills” will fail to convince the adcom of your strengths if they’re not backed up with evidence. Now that you know how to do it, remember: When writing your essays, show, don’t tell.

Do you need help showing the adcom what you’re all about? Our experienced consultant can show you the way! Explore our Admissions Consulting & Editing Services and work one-on-one with your personal advisor to create the application that will get you ACCEPTED!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

On January 13th, Kaplan Test Prep released the results of their annual survey of business schools, speaking to admissions officers from 288 top schools around the country. The results clearly indicate that an applicant’s social media profile could well be a factor in the application process. Here are some particularly important stats: 36% of admissions...

On January 13th, Kaplan Test Prep released the results of their annual survey of business schools, speaking to admissions officers from 288 top schools around the country. The results clearly indicate that an applicant’s social media profile could well be a factor in the application process. Here are some particularly important stats:

36% of admissions officers said they visited applicants’ social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, to learn more about them.

Of those who said they visited social media sites, 19% said they do it “often.”

Social media accounts negatively impacted an applicant 32% of the time, and had a positive impact 38% of the time.

59% of admissions officers considered social media accounts “fair game,” while the other 41% said it was “an invasion of privacy that shouldn’t be done.”

So what does this mean for you? It means that before you apply, you should seriously consider doing an audit of ALL of your social media accounts. Don’t leave a single one out, even if you think that you’ve only used Pinterest for collecting cute ideas for knitting socks, or Instagram for posting pictures of your dog. At some point you may have posted, liked, or commented on something inappropriate.

To help you do your social media audit, we have put together the steps below.

5 Steps to Optimizing Your Online Presence

1. Google yourself

You want to see what admissions officers will see, so start with a simple Google search for your name. Once you see where you have a presence and where you don’t, then you can continue on to the following steps.

2. Clean up your act

Your application package could be flawless, but if adcoms see your Facebook or Instagram littered with inappropriate pictures, your Twitter feed overflowing with obscenities or obvious trolling, or a racist blog post, that 760 GMAT score or 3.9 GPA might not matter.

3. Get social

Lest you think we are convinced social media is bad, our next piece of advice is to make sure that you have the basics of social media covered. Any tech-savvy, modern applicant should have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, and having other social accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are totally acceptable (though not needed professionally). While it’s important to be careful about how you present yourself on social media platforms, you also don’t need to appear like a caveman totally out of touch with the digital world we live in.

4. Make yourself easy to find

Since you can assume there is a decent chance adcoms will look at your social media presence, why not optimize search results for your name to make it easy for them to find you and have what they find there enhance rather than harm your chance of admission? First, you can buy your domain name – pick a URL with your name in it and use that site to keep all your social info in one place (i.e. links to your social media profiles on other sites). You can also use About.Me, WordPress, or Tumblr to consolidate your social presence and make yourself easily searchable. Also, by claiming vanity URLs for your social profiles (setting up /yourname at the end of a link), you can make profile sharing easier and further optimize your online presence.

5. Make what’s found reflect well on you

What you post doesn’t have to be boring or overly professional. You can have passions and other interests. You can even have political opinions or religious beliefs. That’s all fine. Even good. But if you have a few posts, pics, tweets, or status updates that don’t reflect well on you and that you can’t get rid of, post new, positive material to push the old stuff down the rankings. Maybe you can’t make it disappear, but you can make it less prominent.

As you consider how to interact with social media going forward, even if your settings are private, act as if what you post is public. Would what you are about to post make your favorite teacher proud? Your boss who you so respect? Your beloved grandmother? If not, don’t post it. Whether you realize it or not, social media is a reflection of your personal brand, and will continue to be as you move forward in school and with your career. Treat it with care. It represents You!

Final Thoughts On Social Media And The Grad School Process

Once you have done your audit, enlist the help of someone you trust implicitly (parent, family friend, colleague, professor – essentially anyone you know who has your best interests at heart) to check through your accounts as well. Once you have made any changes suggested from them, you can be confident that you have taken every step possible to present the best version of yourself not only through your application but through your social media presence.

Learn how real students navigate their way through the graduate school admissions process and grad school itself with our What is Graduate School Really Like? series. Meet Jeré, a career-changer and busy mom, who believes in inspiring others to pursue their dreams. Jeré, thank you for sharing your story with us! I understand law is...

Meet Jeré, a career-changer and busy mom, who believes in inspiring others to pursue their dreams.

Jeré, thank you for sharing your story with us!

I understand law is a second career for you. When and how did you realize this was the right path for you?

Jeré: I realized a career in law was for me after going through a difficult separation and divorce. I was left alone and pregnant with baby number three and my life was falling apart. To fix the many problems I faced, I spent hours reading Florida statutes and case law to discover remedies and rediscovered my passion for the law and helping people. I always wanted to go to law school and become an attorney. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I placed that goal on the back burner. My personal trials reminded me to go after my dream and affirm I was capable of actually completing it.

Do you feel the fields of education and law share common attributes? Are there lessons from your past career that you hope will inform your work as a lawyer?

Jeré: Yes and no. I think the field of education helped me to be a strong law student. I would study by looking at the material and asking, “How would I explain this to my students?” Doing that allowed me to essentially teach myself the concepts and really retain loads of information. I also think that this helped me to handle the readings and helped me feel comfortable with public speaking.

I was a high school Government teacher so my experience there helped with Constitutional Law. My time in front of a classroom, teaching and disseminating information, definitely helped me with trial practice and currently with trials. I was used to speaking in front of people and communicating effectively before law school, so it definitely helped.

What are your LSAT favorite study tips?

Jeré: My number one tip is to take a diagnostic test at the outset of your studying. Doing this will help you to find out your strengths and weaknesses so you can study purposefully. For example, logic/games were my weakness and reading comprehension was my strength. If I spent too much time doing reading comprehension questions, I would be wasting time. I needed to spend more time on my weaknesses to turn them into strengths.

My second tip is to create a schedule and stick to it. That’s so important for LSAT prep, law school, and bar prep.

How did your family react when you shared the news that you were going to law school?

Jeré: My family was very excited and supportive. My parents witnessed the detour I made away from law school dreams and were ecstatic that I was finally pushing and challenging myself. I was a single mom of three during law school, so my family had to pitch in and help me with my girls. My uncles, aunts, and cousins would take turns picking the girls up from school. My grandmother would watch them when I was in class. My parents were also there with their unwavering support, helping me with my girls, and just being there. The support of family and friends were felt throughout and I’m confident I wouldn’t have made it through without it.

What was the hardest part about going back to school after years of working full time?

Jeré: Balancing my life as a student, teacher, and single mom was intense. I had to create a crazy schedule to keep up with all of my tasks/responsibilities. For example, I would go to school from 9am to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then I would focus on my online teaching job Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I would be a mom before school and after school. When my girls were home, I would cook dinner, help with homework, and then sleep from 10pm to 4am. I would wake up at 4am and study until 6:30 when it was time to take the girls to school. While on campus, I used the breaks I had in between classes to catch up reading/case briefing. It was intense but it got better over time and today, I know it was completely worth it.

What are your top tips for balancing student life and family life?

Jeré: My 1L year (first semester), I didn’t have a great balance. I used to jokingly say, “I don’t go to this school, I just attend classes.” I didn’t get involved because I was trying to handle everything by myself and it was driving me crazy. I didn’t realize the disservice I was doing to myself until one of my classmates asked me to be in her study group. Suddenly, I had four amazingly intelligent, fun, caring women who understood how I felt and showed me that there is strength in numbers. After that, I got involved, joined SBA, became the graduation chair, and made some amazing connections with some amazing people. Law school is so challenging, but it is bearable when you are surrounded by the right people.

How can law schools change to be more accommodating to students who are parents?

Jeré:

I know it may be far-fetched, but I can’t begin to explain how amazing it would be if there was a daycare in law school. The high school that I taught at had an affordable daycare for student moms, teachers, and people from the community. It was super helpful for those students because they were able to focus on school and trust that their children were being cared for… that would definitely have been a help.

If that can’t work, student organizations for parents and non-traditional students can be helpful.

How did you study for the bar? Did you pass the first time you took it?

Jeré: Whew…. Bar prep was intense. I studied from 8am to 8pm. I watched lectures, made thousands of flashcards, wrote practice essays, and did 100 multiple choice questions each day. I was stressed… but I stuck to my schedule and pushed through the feelings of doubt and frustration. Thankfully all my hard work paid off. I passed the bar on my first attempt. God is so Good.

You document your bar exam experiences on your YouTube channel. What prompted you to make this vlog?

Jeré: For starters, it was a way to ease my anxiousness and fears about the results coming out. I was a wreck for weeks and sitting down and expressing my feelings was therapeutic for me. Secondly, pass or fail, I wanted people to know that there is so much that goes into chasing and achieving your dreams. Oftentimes, people see the victory but never see the struggle behind it. I think it’s important to share the struggle, so we are all reminded that nothing worthwhile comes easily.

What advice would you give a career-changer considering law school?

Jeré: Just go for it! Stop making excuses, stop dreaming about, and just go for it. It’s your dream, it’s your goal, it’s your desire, so work for it. No one can do it for you so push towards your goal and make it happen. Surround yourself with support and instill in your mind, that you are already equipped and capable. Tell yourself that you are already victorious and then, take the steps to become victorious.

Do you have questions for Jeré? Questions for us? Do you want to be featured in our next What is Graduate School Really Like? post? Know someone else who you’d love to see featured? Are there questions you’d like us to ask our students in this series? LET US KNOW!

Are you setting out on your own law school journey? We can help you reach the finish line! Check out our Law School Admissions Consulting Services to team up with an admissions expert who will help you join the ranks of thousands of Accepted clients who get accepted to their dream schools.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

‘Twas the night before deadlines, and all through the world, Our consultants sat cramming, coffee brewing, brows furrowed; Though the essays were written with effort and care, There were still a few things that were cause for despair! The clichés! Oh, forsake! Terrible, were they – That all our consultants could think was “oy vey!”...

Moral of the story: phrases and idioms come and go in waves. While it’s okay to use some popular phrasing, you want to make sure that your essay is original and not chock-full of clichés.

Take your clichés to the next level

The first time someone used “take it to the next level” in their essay, the reader probably stopped and thought – wow, that’s a great way to put it. They probably thought the same thing the second and third and even tenth time they heard it. But the hundredth time? The thousandth? It’s just not as impressive. In fact, after original phrases get used to death, they become boring, even silly, and lose their meaning.

We recently polled Accepted’s consultants and asked: “What are the most abused and misused clichés used by applicants?” When we dug out from under the flood of responses, we found the following to be the ultimate winners/losers:

Take it to the next level

Lend a helping hand

Been there for me

Want to give back

Outside my comfort zone

Making a difference

Disruptive-anything

Global-anything

Diverse-anything

Onboarding

Thinking outside the box

Synergy

Touch base

Circle back

Hit the ground running

Rolling up my sleeves

Finding my path/journey

Made me the man/woman I am today

When writing your essays, try to move outside your comfort zone and take your writing to the next level. You want to really make a difference and get on board with this global thinking and diverse wordification.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in…or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try...

By now, many of you have received answers from early application efforts – either you got in…or you didn’t. If you got in, congrats – you probably feel amazing! However, if you face a fistful or rejections or waitlist notifications, then it’s normal and ok to feel disappointed and to express that disappointment. But try and move on quickly. Rejection is not a tragedy; it’s not a judgment of your worth as a person. Your career goals have not been demolished. No one has told you that you’ll never be a (fill in the blank – doctor/lawyer/teacher/consultant/engineer). This rejection may very well delay or modify a career dream, but the only way it can derail you completely is if you let it do that. It simply means that this particular school can’t take you for this particular class.

So what’s a proper response?

Think about what your goal is. Was going to grad school really the only path to achieving your dreams? Did grad school need to happen now?

If grad school truly wasn’t an option anymore, what would you do? Long-term plans are important, but it’s important to grow every day, in some way, and to avoid staking your entire future on one major event (i.e. getting into graduate school).

What are short-term goals you want to achieve at work and in your personal life – job-related, fitness, family, friends, hobbies, spirituality? Don’t just give lip service to these things, think them through, in part because they may be crucial to the next strategy.

If you were rejected but ALSO have acceptances, then a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: if you applied to these schools, then you should be happy to attend. So you should probably accept one of these acceptances and stop worrying about the rejections.

If you are dealing exclusively with rejections, then you need to get to work analyzing what went wrong.

The 3 categories of rejection

There are 3 categories in which you can usually place your cause for rejection:

You weren’t competitive/qualified at the schools you applied to.

You simply shot too high.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Here you’ve got two choices. You can either spend the next year improving your qualifications and reapplying to these same schools next application season, or you can lower the bar and apply to less competitive programs.

More and more applicants these days are reapplicants – people who didn’t give up. And guess what? Reapplicants are more likely to get in than those in the general pool. Why? Usually because reapplicants represent a more dedicated, focused, “serious” group. They know they want to get into a particular school, they know why, and the (usually) know what it takes and have worked hard to achieve it.

So start thinking about which programs you really want to focus on next time, and start building an application that will turn a disappointing “no” into a triumphant “yes.”

Also, be willing to cast a wider net if you didn’t get a least some positive results (e.g. interviews) overall.

You WERE competitive/qualified but didn’t present yourself well.

In this case, you applied to the right programs based on your qualifications – that is, you had what it takes to get in – but for some reason, you didn’t tell your story well in your application or made some other application error. You didn’t apply effectively.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

If the problem is that you failed to tell your story well, then you need to make sure that when you reapply (either to these schools or to others), that you tell a more compelling story. You still have a chance to get into competitive programs this year, but you’ll need to make sure your application is 100% awesome.

You were a victim of sheer numbers.

This can happen if you’re in an overrepresented group – bio major applying to med school, Indian IT guy applying to b-school, Political science majors applying to law school, etc. Being in such a category makes it harder to distinguish yourself, and harder to get in, even if you’re super qualified, and even if you’ve done a good job on your application.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

The thing here, is that if you’re a victim of sheer numbers, then you can’t just do a “good” job on your application; you need to do a slam-dunk, smash-hit, out-of-this-world job on your application. This is probably the most frustrating result. Because of intense competition with people of your background, and the fact that schools value diversity, you’re stuck. You can’t change who you are, but you can change the way you tell your distinct story. Apply to more schools this year or to the same ones next year, and make sure that your application shows the adcom why you’re different – and special – and a necessary asset to their next class.

And yes, it is possible that you fit into more than one of these categories and have to address more than one of these issues.

Watch: Four Reasons for Rejection

For more insight into why applicants get rejected, check out Linda Abraham’s video, “4 Reasons for Rejection.”

It’s not the end of the world!

Getting rejected from grad school is the pits. But we promise, it is NOT the worst thing in the world! Through this experience, you’ll learn loads about yourself: you’ll re-prioritize your goals, adjust your timeline, gain more experience on the job, take additional classes, network with more people, and overall, enrich your life so that when you apply next year or when you decide to head out on a different career path, you’ll be more prepared and more successful.

One aspect of your response to this rejection has to be the same regardless of the cause or category: You need to get over the disappointment and respond constructively to the situation. This may be scant comfort now, but you’ll end up stronger because of this healthy response…and hopefully win that much-deserved acceptance letter in the near future.

These tips will help you keep things in perspective, even when the news you get isn’t the news you want. If reapplication is your answer, then have an Accepted consultant review your application, help you figure out why you were rejected, and what you can do to GET ACCEPTED next time. Check out our services here for more information.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Learn about HBS 2+2 from Tess Michaels, entrepreneur and HBS 2+2 student [Show Summary] Stride Funding is an innovative start-up that is revolutionizing student financing with income share arrangements instead of traditional student loans. Today Linda talks to Tess Michaels, founder of Stride Funding, and second-year student at Harvard Business School who joined the class...

Stride Funding is an innovative start-up that is revolutionizing student financing with income share arrangements instead of traditional student loans. Today Linda talks to Tess Michaels, founder of Stride Funding, and second-year student at Harvard Business School who joined the class of 2020 through HBS 2+2. She shares how she came up with the idea, how HBS has been instrumental in Stride’s success, and her path to HBS and 2+2.

Tess Michaels discusses what it’s like being an HBS student with a Start-up [Show Notes]

Our guest today, Tess Michaels, has done a ton. I’m going to give you a few details, and then let her fill in her story herself as well as tell us about the new student financing start-up she has founded and is running. Tess graduated from Penn with a Bachelors in Applied Science and another Bachelors from the Wharton School in Global Impact Investing and Operations Management. She has a long list of activities and offices held while there, and in addition founded Soceana, a platform to “democratize giving and promote corporate volunteerism,” which was acquired in 2018. After graduation and being accepted to Harvard’s 2+2 program she worked at Goldman Sachs as an analyst for two years and then at Vista Equity Partners as a PE Associate. She joined HBS in 2018 and immediately founded Stride Funding, which we will learn more about later in this interview.

Can you tell us a little about your background? Where you grew up? What do you like to do for fun? [2:31]

I grew up in Texas and have a big love of BBQ. I love going to comedy shows, seeing live music and movies. One of my favorite films is Good Will Hunting, a Boston classic!

Why did you decide to get two bachelors degrees at Penn? [3:12]

Growing up I was really interested in science but also in business. At Penn I had the opportunity to study biology but also operations and investing at Wharton so I decided to take advantage of it.

Why HBS 2+2? [4:01]

My junior year at Penn I met with a couple upperclassmen who had applied and told me about the benefits. I knew I had gotten a lot out of the business classes at Wharton and wanted to take the opportunity to learn from a very global peer set as well as utilize the case method, which was very different from how I had been studying. 2+2 gave me the flexibility to pursue work that built upon my skill set before going to b- school with the comfort of knowing I was going to go to HBS.

How would your initial post graduate years have been different if you hadn’t been accepted to 2+2? [4:54]

I would most likely have gone into investment banking anyway. It is a great place to grow a skill set. Having 2+2 let me decide that while I loved finance, I missed the operations piece, and knew I could focus on that once I arrived, which was nice.

With 2+2 you are applying early in your career, really without formal work experience, and you have to be thoughtful about who you choose to write letters of recommendation. Luckily, I had the benefit of growing my first start up while at Penn, so had people who could speak to my abilities in that regard. The second is crafting the right story. Thinking through your career path, why business school, and where it will take you.

What do you like most about Harvard Business School? [7:00]

Number one: the people are so inspiring. 40% of the class is international. Second is the experiences – the international trips you take are led by fellow classmates from the countries you are visiting, which adds a whole new level of experience with a local’s perspective. Last, having the opportunity to grow Stride while in school has shaped my experience and made HBS similar to an accelerator – learning from professors, entrepreneurs in residence, etc.

What would you like to see improved? [8:12]

The first-year experience is really valuable to build the community with the section – you take every class with the same group of 90 students – but a lot of classes overlapped with my undergrad experience. The other thing I would say is the lack of diversity in cases – the types of protagonists don’t reflect the actual diversity in the workplace.

With all the great experience you had both from your education and work, are you actually learning anything new from the classes? [9:10]

There is not a day I regret going to HBS. The classes I am taking this year have been incredibly valuable, being taught by practitioners who have been incredibly successful in their careers. Classes are very different this year and specialized to what I need. The case method is also incredibly unique. You are learning from fellow peers who have collective experiences no individual could have themselves – from the military, Tesla, big corporations with different missions and visions, and all are invaluable to my learning experience.

Did you arrive at HBS knowing you wanted to start a business? [10:48]

I did. I loved my time at Goldman, but missed operations. I knew that HBS would be a great launch pad to start something new. I spent a great deal of time thinking through problems I was very passionate about, real pain points. By the time I got to HBS I had been working on Stride for a few months.

Tell me about Stride Funding What is it? How does it work? [11:39]

The ideation process was very raw at first. I started by asking anyone and everyone, “If you could solve any one problem, what would it be?” There was a recurring theme – the cost of education has just become so high, which has made the decision to go to grad school that much harder. When I was talking to HBS peers I heard that even more. I did field research and was ready to go with the right business model and the right problem when I arrived.

Stride Funding is a student financing company. We offer a different kind of model based on income sharing. Traditional loans accrue interest while in school, and then you are paying a lot when you are making the least right out of school. During down times in your career (laid off, maternity leave, etc) you are paying hefty interest payments, so how do we align cost and value of education? Schools expect students to pay it all up front, and it is up to students to make sure the cost is worth it.

What we have is an income share agreement – we help grad students get funding and in return we take a fixed percentage of that student’s income over five years. This allows more flexibility. You are paying the lowest amount when you are making the lowest amount, and if you are laid off you pay nothing. We do well if the student does well, so we have also built a community – recruiters, resume services, and a peer-to-peer network. Funding is step one, but we are here for you throughout your career. We essentially are investors – students are the start-ups and we nurture them, and we have the incentive to do so.

From a cost perspective we are about the same price as a traditional loan but with none of the downside, and the upside of community built in with no additional costs. We want students to never worry about whether they can afford the education, and to know we are invested in them.

How have the Harvard Incubator Lab and HBS’ other entrepreneurial resources played a role in the founding and success of Stride Funding? Getting funding? [17:45]

I have been able to meet professors with incredible networks who have given me great guidance, and I’ve been able to learn from their careers. Jeff Buskin is my advisor and introduced me to investors. Second is the ability to ideate with others who keep you accountable for what you say you will achieve. We have weekly meetings with entrepreneurs in residence, and having peers in similar boats is really amazing. The last thing is the ability to be on campus with the target segment, so it is really “for students by students,” seeing those pain points every day. Being in Boston is incredible with the number of students and schools.

How do you manage the demands of b-school and running a business? [20:19]

It is a lot. You sacrifice a lot of sleep. The primary things are my classes are really well aligned with the start up. They are completely relevant to Stride – focused on selling, real value proposition, and brand value. Second is having an amazing team to work with. I could not have picked a better group. We are in constant communication, and I could depend on them for my life. We are having a retreat in Dallas in January. We keep each other accountable and energized about why we joined Stride in the first place. This is my number one priority, and I find ways to make it work.

Plans for the future? How do you see yourself growing Stride Funding? Could it work for other funding needs? (mortgages for example – lending for assets that appreciate?) [22:19]

There are a lot of different growth sectors we think about. The student loan market is such a huge industry – we hear about it in the news every single day. We already have our work cut out for us in fulfilling that demand. We probably will expand to undergrad later. Our second product is prepping to launch, which is a refinance option, and will be available in 2020. It is essentially converting all traditional loans into one income share agreement that is much more manageable. Beyond that we are looking at pain points in other areas.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [24:57]

Maybe what a good team looks like. So much of this business is built from the team, so I want to give a shout out to an incredible group of people. My partner in crime, Patrick Connor, has been in the lending space for 25 years and worked at companies like SoFi and the big banks. He makes sure underwriting is fair. We have an amazing group of students at Harvard College – they bring so much energy and passion to the cause. Hiring the right people should first be mission-focused. People need to not just have great skills but understand the pain points and prioritize them. Our mission is, “Fund your Future, Hit your Stride.” It is about being there for every part of a student’s journey, which is why community is so important. We aim to ensure students are able to really be successful and are their partner every step of the way. We anticipate the relationship continuing, building on things like the peer to peer network.

What does the adcom actually want to know about the challenges you’ve overcome? In this short video, Linda Abraham shares the answer to this often-asked question: Why obstacles? When applicants write about their accomplishments, whether in personal statements for graduate school or in b-school essays that ask for greatest accomplishments, challenges, and the like, they...

What does the adcom actually want to know about the challenges you’ve overcome? In this short video, Linda Abraham shares the answer to this often-asked question:

Why obstacles?

When applicants write about their accomplishments, whether in personal statements for graduate school or in b-school essays that ask for greatest accomplishments, challenges, and the like, they almost always come up with real accomplishments: driving innovations that led to revenue boosts for their firms, conducting original and meaningful research in their fields of study, or leading a volunteer group on a major community service initiative. But as genuine and significant as these accomplishments are, many of these initial essay drafts are often missing a key ingredient: obstacles.

Not just obstacles, but key obstacles – with details

Obstacles are ubiquitous in everyday life – the traffic detour, the rude tech support representative, even the mean-looking dog on your favorite walking route – and inevitable when it comes to business initiatives. But too often when asked to talk about their accomplishments, applicants contract immediate amnesia for the things that got in their way en route to their achievement, even though getting past them was often as challenging as executing all the foreseen elements of their plans.

The bland essay…

The result: bland essays, such as this example:

As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. After communicating my vision to the team, we worked hard for four weeks on a prototype, completing it by the deadline, to the delight of management. Today my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300k annually.

Sure, it sounds like a solid accomplishment, but would you remember it as well as the following, obstacle-rich version?

…and the brilliant essay

Take a look:

As the leader of my product research group, I came up with a plan for a new widget that would save us 10% in costs. But when I communicated my vision to the team, two senior engineers immediately pointed out key flaws in the design, and I had to revise my plan to correct them. We worked on a prototype for two weeks before discovering that the material we planned to use for the product had become over 30% more expensive in the last month, so I pulled an all-nighter researching alternative materials, and we chose one. We met our four-week deadline and presented the prototype to management, but the VP of Manufacturing argued that we would need to purchase major new equipment to produce the widget. I convinced the team to work long hours on a manufacturing proposal that proved we could make the product with existing equipment. Today my widget is still the standard for my company, saving us over $300k annually.

See the difference a discussion of obstacles makes? Obstacles make your essays more memorable in at least two ways: they heighten the drama of the story, and they give the reader more elements and images to associate with you. In the second version, it’s easy to imagine the two dissenting engineers, the surprise of discovering the price hike for materials, and the VP’s frown. In the first, there’s little to imagine but an employee smiling about a job well done.

Why you need to write about overcoming the unexpected in your personal statement

Do you have questions about addressing obstacles you’ve overcome in your application essays? Leave a comment below and we’d love to help you out.

Get one-on-one guidance for addressing your obstacles and writing essays that make you shine. When you work with an experienced admissions consultant, you can apply with the confidence that you have presented yourself at your best and maximized your chances of getting accepted. Click here to learn more.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, a national holiday during which we give pause – at least for a brief moment – to count our blessings. Wherever you are, that is a good exercise. An attitude of gratitude is worth cultivating throughout the year. I firmly believe it provides benefits from an interpersonal, professional,...

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, a national holiday during which we give pause – at least for a brief moment – to count our blessings.

Wherever you are, that is a good exercise.

An attitude of gratitude is worth cultivating throughout the year. I firmly believe it provides benefits from an interpersonal, professional, and even an admissions perspective. Probably the biggest beneficiary of that positive slant on life is the person who holds it year round. This U.S. holiday just gives everyone a chance to focus for one day on this specific quality.

For me personally I feel blessed. Our children are doing well. My grandchildren are growing. We enjoy the company of our local children and their families frequently. And we manage to see those children and grandchildren who live elsewhere too. Most importantly, all are healthy and happy. And that is a blessing for which my husband and I are deeply thankful.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

How many of you are on a law school application cycle schedule? A schedule that you gave yourself over the summer perhaps compelling you to submit by Thanksgiving. Are you on target? As we approach Thanksgiving and the holidays, it is a good time to evaluate where you are and where you need to be....

How many of you are on a law school application cycle schedule? A schedule that you gave yourself over the summer perhaps compelling you to submit by Thanksgiving. Are you on target?

As we approach Thanksgiving and the holidays, it is a good time to evaluate where you are and where you need to be. If you have submitted your application, congratulations and good luck! Yet for many, the need to retake the LSAT or just life may have derailed your well-planned schedule Life happens. If so, are you stressed? Take a breath, enjoy some turkey, take a nap, and know that admissions committees will look forward to your application when you are ready to submit your strongest application.

Schedules are helpful, but should be guidelines and can be adjusted. If your strongest application needs more time to cultivate, take that time. Rolling application cycles can be confusing at times for applicants. The concept of applying, “the earlier the better,” can create anxiety. Applications submitted by January 1, or even mid-January, are still timely applications. Thus, if you needed an LSAT retake or had a rough work or semester schedule, fear not. Take some time to enjoy the holidays and chip away at the application components so that you are creating the strongest narrative for admissions committees rather than the earliest.

If you need some extra assistance adjusting the schedule of your law school application cycle, I have some suggestions:

Also, take some time to review this helpful webinar for insight and information:

There is time to enjoy turkey, time to enjoy the holidays and time to submit your strongest application to law school.

Looking for one-on-one guidance as you make your way through your law school application? The expert advisors at Accepted are ready to help! Explore our Law School Admissions Consulting & Editing Services to work with a consultant who will ensure that your application is a smashing success, and NOT a recipe for disaster. Learn more here about how to GET ACCEPTED.

Christine Carr is a Harvard graduate with over 15 years of admissions experience, including nine years as Associate Director of Admissions at Boston University School of Law. She has read over 10,000 personal statements and counseled thousands of prospective applicants through the application process Want Christine to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>How Can You Show Passion in Admissions?https://blog.accepted.com/passion-action-dedication/
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:30:01 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=34284

When one thinks of passion, one doesn’t generally think of investment bankers. But the admissions committees are looking for passion in their applicants; so how are you – a computer guy, an engineer, a biology major, or yes, an investment banker – going to craft a winning application that shows them the passion they’re looking...

When one thinks of passion, one doesn’t generally think of investment bankers. But the admissions committees are looking for passion in their applicants; so how are you – a computer guy, an engineer, a biology major, or yes, an investment banker – going to craft a winning application that shows them the passion they’re looking for?

“Passion” has a sexy ring to it. An emotional, visceral appeal. It evokes images of glamorous actors and actresses in hot and heavy romances. The good guy in a Frank Capra film changing history. Generals exhorting the troops before sending them into battle.

Redefining passion

“Passion” in admissions – be it college, MBA, law school, medical school, or grad school – means dedication. It means commitment. It requires action over time. It can be very calculated and goal-oriented, and not at all glamorous. It may lead to a feverish culmination, an earth-shattering moment, and it may not. It can be any one of the following and an infinite number of other activities:

Spending hours practicing the cello day-in and day-out, year after year

Assuming responsibility for an annual silent auction that raises thousands of dollars for your favorite cause during the five years that you have chaired it

Training and training and training so that you beat your personal best in the race of your choice

Volunteering at a medical or legal clinic twice a week since your sophomore year in college

What are you dedicated to?

Next time you see the word “passion” in an admissions context, look between the lines. Read it as “dedication.” And those calculating, number-crunching, spreadsheet addicts among you, remember this equation: Passion = Action + Dedication.

Explore our Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you identify and then write about your passions. Get started now on creating the application that will get you ACCEPTED!

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Interview with Kara Keenan Sweeney, Director of Admissions, Marketing, and Financial Aid at the Lauder Institute [Show Summary] Kara Keenan Sweeney, Director of Admissions, Marketing, and Financial Aid at the Lauder Institute, takes us through the Lauder program: what is it, who it is a good fit for and who it’s not, and how to...

Learn what makes Wharton Lauder unique, and how applicants can distinguish themselves in their applications [Show Notes]

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Kara Keenan Sweeney, Director of Admissions, Marketing and Financial Aid at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Penn Law School. Kara has an extensive background in graduate admissions, starting with her masters in higher ed administration at Columbia. And moving on to admissions positions at INSEAD, U Penn, Penn State, and now at The Lauder Institute.

Can you give an overview of the Wharton Lauder Program? There may be some listeners who aren’t that familiar with the program. [1:56]

Our students earn a Master of Arts in International Studies at the same time they do the Wharton MBA program. It is a two-year, joint, integrated program, and all of the classes are taken at the Lauder Institute. The Institute was founded in 1985 by the family of Estee Lauder, and they have been very involved in the planning and execution of the program. We have six programs of concentration. Five of the concentrations are focused on a region of the world – they are East/Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. We also have a global track for those who already have significant international experience and are looking for a more macro take on global issues. There is no language requirement while in the program because they have to have those skills before being admitted. Students do both programs simultaneously, and we frontload a little bit with students starting in May. There are 70 students in each class, and they take a month of classes in Philadelphia and then do an eight-week summer immersion, so they have three months of class under their belts before the MBA program starts.

Wharton Lauder has a new director Dr. Martine Haas. I realize that she just started in July, but any idea of the direction that she’d like to take the program? [5:32]

She brings a lot of energy, and it’s great to have someone new as well as the first woman lead the institute. She is from South Africa, studied in the U.K., and has been teaching at Wharton for the last several years so she already knows a lot about our program. She continues to learn more about our program through our students, alumni, and board, and is very happy to help shape the vision for the next five years.

What else is new at Wharton Lauder since we last spoke two years ago? [6:22]

We changed the curriculum a few years ago from strict language-focused classes to a concentration focus. Those changes have been going very well with the new regional focus. We’ve added Korean as a language to our Asian track, and we also restarted our Anglophone Africa program this year. We’ve hired three new faculty members, one of whom oversees the Africa program right now. Another covers the Global Knowledge Lab. We also in the last month had a new fellow join the program, Professor Mohamed El-Erian, professor of practice at Wharton and Lauder, and it’s an amazing experience for the students to work with him. The students are required to go on two trips as part of Lauder Integral Ventures. We have nine trips available – Botswana, Myanmar and Tahiti, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Yugoslavia, Israel, Mongolia. Students spend a week in one of these regions with a faculty member, study a topic, and then write a paper.

Can you describe the critical elements of the Wharton MBA and Lauder application? [11:10]

They complete the Wharton application as traditional MBA applicant would, and embedded into it is the Lauder application as well. We ask for an additional essay on why they are applying to Lauder, why they are going after their chosen concentration, the value they will add to the program, and the results of the oral proficiency interview which is a language proficiency test. Students must already have an advanced language skill to study in that language. We teach our classes in a particular language already at a graduate level, so you need to come in already at a strong level. We also ask for information on international experience. The application is submitted jointly to both programs. In most cases, you are either admitted to both or not to both. In a few cases applicants will be admitted to Wharton only, as they don’t qualify for Lauder. We only look at the applicants as a whole group and the adcom reviews both the Wharton and Lauder application. We know what the Wharton program is looking for and we make decisions together. It is a very integrated admissions process.

How do you go through an application? [14:08]

We read through it start to finish in the same order it’s submitted online. We look through background, work history, read the essays (two for Wharton), recommendations, and then the Lauder application is a supplement. We evaluate each area and make sure they would thrive at Wharton with academics, GMAT/GRE and in quant. For Lauder, with a master of arts, we want to see that students have strong writing abilities, which we can evaluate from standardized tests, essays, and grades as an undergraduate. We look at the professional experience so far in their career. We evaluate international experience and ambitions, and how applicants see themselves benefitting from the Lauder program. We want to see students have done the research and checking all the boxes and sections we are looking at. So long as you have a compelling reason for attending the program, we will take your application seriously.

Lauder’s essay question for MBAs is “Discuss why you are applying to the Lauder program detailing specific reasons for applying to your chosen Program of Concentration and describing how you see yourself benefiting from, and contributing to, the Lauder program overall. (Approximately 800 words.)” What is the wrong way to approach that question? [19:29]

It is frustrating to see people who really haven’t done the research on the program. We want to see people reaching out to us to learn about it and have a compelling reason for attending the program, and you can really tell when people haven’t done that research. We don’t want a two-page essay on why you are interested in Africa, we want to see you really understand what the program is about. The folks who have done the research feel the program was designed for them.

What gets you excited (in a positive way) about a Lauder applicant? [21:17]

When you see the evidence of research, passion and energy for the program that will be a great fit.

What about the applicant who is multi-lingual, has international experience, and global career goals, but a below-average GPA or test score? Are they doomed? What can they do, if anything, to improve the likelihood of acceptance? [21:46]

There are a few different ways to think about it. Don’t think about your GMAT or GPA as a be-all and end-all. It is not the only example of aptitude. If you have a below average GMAT score, talk about how the work you do has quant aspects or that you have taken supplemental courses that show evidence of academic ability. Talk about what you want to do and how you will be rounding out skills you haven’t developed so far. We have a wide range of GPA and GMAT scores but give us evidence of being a good student. Maybe talk to recommenders about creative ways to highlight that.

What is a Lauder interview like? [23:51]

It is a 30-minute conversation ideally with a current student or alum. For students in the U.S. they do it in Philly in person hopefully. For international students we are lucky to have alums all over the world and schedule something in an applicant’s home country. It is basically a conversation question about why you are applying to Lauder and not just Wharton. Why Lauder, why it’s the right program for you. We ask applicants to share a bit about language instruction, how they learned languages, international experiences, passion for international studies, evidence of a global mindset, and ambitions post-MBA.

Where do Lauder grads get jobs? [25:58]

1 in 3 students will work outside of their home countries on average. Our graduates are all over the world. Many have gone to Amazon, many transition to consulting or finance, some go to places like World Bank or IFC. We have profiles of several recent graduates on our website and encourage listeners to review them. Lauder graduate outcomes are fairly consistent with outcomes for the MBA program, but are more geographically disbursed. We also have some students who start their own business.

On the Accepted blog, we recently interviewed a Wharton Lauder student, Sergio, who emphasized the plethora of opportunities in the program and the finite nature of time. How do you recommend students prioritize at Wharton Lauder? Are you looking for time management skills in applicants? [27:58]

We tend to see very type A, driven individuals apply. We have students running on very few hours of sleep, hitting the gym, socializing, doing recruiting, somehow they find the time to make everything happen. There are two additional classes twice a week, and there is a strong community at Lauder with a lot of support. We have a mentorship program between 1st and 2nd years. What I have heard from alums and students is that with Wharton there are so many clubs and activities, and you need to pick and choose wisely what you are really passionate about. Choose the few things you are really interested in so you can meet academic obligations and manage other things like job search. Time management is key, but most manage to thrive really well.

What advice – final words of wisdom – do you have for applicants to Wharton Lauder? [30:28]

Do the research. We have two fulltime staff people dedicated to admissions and working with applicants. Reach out to us – we are open to phone calls to discuss your candidacy. We have webinars. Reach out to students and alumni through your network. If you don’t have anyone in your network, reach out to the office and we will connect you with a current student or ambassador. If you can make it happen, come to Philadelphia, visit class, visit Wharton. In lieu of that, doing research is the #1 piece of advice I can give.

]]>Learn How to Prepare for the New Digital LSAT and Get All of Your Law School Admissions Questions Answeredhttps://blog.accepted.com/learn-how-to-prepare-for-the-new-digital-lsat-and-get-all-of-your-law-school-admissions-questions-answered/
Sun, 03 Nov 2019 17:30:45 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=66558

The days of the paper and pencil LSAT are finally gone. Digital LSATs became the new reality in September 2019. What is the best way to prepare for the new test? Join Christine Carr, Accepted law school admissions consultant and former Associate Director of Admission at Boston University School of Law, and Steve Schwartz, founder...

The days of the paper and pencil LSAT are finally gone. Digital LSATs became the new reality in September 2019. What is the best way to prepare for the new test?

Join Christine Carr, Accepted law school admissions consultant and former Associate Director of Admission at Boston University School of Law, and Steve Schwartz, founder of LSAT Unplugged for a free webinar on Wednesday, November 6 at 8:30pm ET, covering how to prepare for the Digital LSAT this fall, 2019 LSAT changes, and what you need to know for this law school admission cycle.

The presentation will be followed by a general Q&A on anything LSAT/law school admissions-related.

Can’t make the session? Be sure to RSVP anyway to receive a recording of the webinar afterwards.

About Steve Schwartz:

Steve is a full-time author, teacher, and founder of the LSAT Blog and LSAT Unplugged podcast and YouTube channel, with an audience of over 100,00 on LSAT and law school admissions. He has 10+ years of experience as an LSAT instructor.

About Christine Carr:

Christine is a law school admissions consultant at Accepted and the former associate director of admissions at Boston University School of Law. In nine years at BU Law, she read over 10,000 personal statements, counseled thousands of prospective applicants through the application process, and managed the operations of a highly selective law school.

For personalized law school admissions assistance, check out Accepted’s Law School Admissions Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you with your LSAT strategy and any other components of your application!

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

As you write your personal statement, you should keep in mind some of the qualities that law schools value. Be sure to emphasize these in your personal statement through specific actions and examples. Ethics Jokes about lawyers aside, law schools and the legal profession value integrity and honesty above all else. Any type of service...

As you write your personal statement, you should keep in mind some of the qualities that law schools value. Be sure to emphasize these in your personal statement through specific actions and examples.

Ethics

Jokes about lawyers aside, law schools and the legal profession value integrity and honesty above all else. Any type of service that emphasizes academic integrity (like ombudsman) or ethical standards is great to emphasize. It’s also important that everything you describe in your personal statement displays your strong sense of ethics.

Intellectual curiosity

Law school consists of a lot of information. Therefore, schools value intellectual curiosity and academic ability. Most law schools have at least one writing-intensive class as well as a class focused on trial advocacy. You should be able to show in your personal statement moments when you went above and beyond to learn something new.

Interest in law

Believe it or not, law schools want applicants who are interested in the law. An important part of law school and legal practice is scholarship – writing and interpreting the law. While it doesn’t matter what your undergraduate major was, law school applicants should have an interest in law from the point of view of history, philosophy, political science, or economics.

People skills

Lawyers work with people. While the stereotype of the lawyer is someone who is argumentative, in fact, law schools want people who can talk to many different types of people without confrontation. Avoid that old adage in your personal statement: “My parents said I should be a lawyer because I like to argue.” This kind of perception shows law schools that you haven’t spent enough time learning what the practice of law is all about.

Tenacity

Try, try again. That’s a lawyer’s motto. Sometimes your side wins, and sometimes it loses. But in all cases, a lawyer has to be willing to pick up and try again. In your personal statement, you should show moments when you have overcome obstacles.

While law schools aren’t looking for cookie-cutter applicants, they do want students who show these qualities, which are essential for success in law school and beyond. Remember to show, don’t tell, all of these in your personal statement, and you will set yourself up to be a winning applicant.

Do you need help demonstrating these 5 qualities in your law school personal statement? Explore our Law School Admissions Services and we’ll pair you with an expert advisor who will ensure your application has what it takes to help you GET ACCEPTED.

]]>Navigating Law School with a Chronic Illnesshttps://blog.accepted.com/navigating-law-school-with-a-chronic-illness/
Thu, 24 Oct 2019 16:30:17 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=66423

Learn how real students navigate their way through the graduate school admissions process and grad school itself with our What is Graduate School Really Like? series. Meet Rachel, a 3L blogger facing chronic health challenges…and thriving. Rachel, thank you for sharing your story with us! Congratulations on starting your final year of law school! Which...

Congratulations on starting your final year of law school! Which law school do you attend? What attracted you to that particular program?

Rachel: Thank you! I am really looking forward to being done. I am a Day Division student at IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law. I am originally from Ohio, but my mom is a born and raised Hoosier, so it’s kind of a tribute to her. It also means that my partner and I are able to be close-ish to our families since he and I are from the same town. I was also fortunate to receive a scholarship to come here.

I understand that you were admitted with financial aid, despite a borderline LSAT. What steps did you take to create your strongest possible application?

Rachel: Truthfully, I think what saved me were my addenda and my letters of recommendation. My GPA had fallen after my migraine diagnosis and I pointed out in my addenda that my GPA had risen again since stabilizing my condition. That said, nothing is more valuable than excellent recommendations. To this day, I have no clue what my references said in their letters, but I’m convinced they got me in.

Some other, less specific factors may have been my participation in college. I was very involved in my residence hall’s activities council and worked at the front desk of that residence hall for 2.5 years. I participated in several programs my undergrad offered, including Diversity Certification and Suicide Prevention Certification programs. I was a member of the Visual and Performing Arts Living and Learning Community my senior year and got to explore and experience a lot of art and culture. I chose a handful of things I felt passionate about and engaged in them 100%.

Congratulations on celebrating your second wedding anniversary a few months ago! As a busy law student, how do you juggle school and important relationships?

Rachel: I did, thank you! I still forget I’m married all the time! I remember hearing before I came to law school that it ruins relationships, which made me very nervous since we took the plunge the summer before I started law school. It definitely hasn’t been easy for us. I tend to just get sucked into the work because I’m really passionate about it and my partner is just so supportive that he lets me get away with it sometimes.

We will categorize almost any activity where we can spend time together as a date. Sometimes it’s running to Costco and grabbing takeout; others it’s watching our favorite Twitch streamer while I read for class. I also try really hard to take a day off on the weekends so we can catch up on housework and just hang out together; that doesn’t always pan out though.

Any favorite tips for staying organized as a student?

Rachel: Get a planner! I have appointments and tasks written in multiple places because I’m very harebrained and I tend to bite off almost more than I can chew. Having one place where I know I can find any piece of information I might need that I can carry around and is unaffected by a lack of internet or a dead battery is how I survive. Find what works for you and hold on to it!

As a person who suffers from chronic migraines, how do you care for your body to ensure you can function at your best…all while keeping up with the demands of law school?

Rachel: The first step for me was accepting my new normal. I can’t do the whole “survive on no sleep and caffeine” thing that a lot of law students do. I decided before I started that I would prioritize my health and if my grades took a hit for that, then so be it. I do try to limit how much my illness affects my ability by staying hydrated, eating regularly, and getting enough sleep.

I plan my life around my illness so having a predictable schedule is really important for me. I try to ensure that I have downtime between scheduled items so I can have a snack and recharge before the next thing. I really thrive on structure. I wear Salonpas patches to class a lot because my migraines tend to start and linger around the back of my head. I also got blue light filtering lenses in my glasses to help with staring at screens all day.

If I’m at home and am struggling to do the work, I try to find a compromise. I try to stay about a week ahead on reading so if I have a bad pain day it doesn’t completely throw me off. Otherwise, I prioritize which readings can be skipped.

I try to be honest with myself about how I’m feeling and then set boundaries based on that. My partner helps a lot because he’ll take care of basic house tasks and making sure I’m eating frequently enough when I’m trying to struggle through readings.

What has been the most difficult aspect of law school for you so far? What have you enjoyed the most?

Rachel: These really play into each other for me. I love all of the opportunities to do things I’m interested in. There are clubs devoted to all types of law and so many fascinating classes in addition to clinics, internships, and pro bono opportunities. I love the law, so I’m in a kind of wonderland that I know won’t exist to the same extent once I graduate. That said, I’ve really struggled with limiting myself to a handful of things that jive with my “new normal” as an invisibly disabled person. It’s hard enough to choose when your energy seems boundless, but I’m even more restrained so I’ve had to really rein it in.

Can you tell us about the process of applying for internships? How early in the school year did you need to begin? What role did the school play in helping you find your internship?

Rachel: McKinney has a resume drop in December that I participated in to get my first internship. Basically, I just submitted my resume to a few places I was interested in, but I already knew I really wanted to intern at a prosecutor’s office.

My second internship I got through a professor. I knew he had connections to one of the legal aids I was interested in and I asked him if he could tell me who to reach out to. He put me in touch with the Managing Attorney and I interviewed that way. This process happened during Spring Finals (which I don’t advise by any means). I was dealing with family things Spring Term and kind of missed the boat on more traditional means of getting an internship. But don’t hesitate to ask anyway. I love my internship and wouldn’t have it if I hadn’t asked.

Can you share a bit about your past summer internship?

Rachel: Yes! I was a Certified Legal Intern at an LSC funded Legal Aid. Basically, a Certified Intern can do anything a lawyer can do, but supervised (kind of like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde). I mostly worked on expungements and helping people who’ve had their driver’s licenses suspended. The goal is basically to remove barriers to employment and financial stability for the client. It’s really rewarding work. My previous experience was in criminal law, so I wanted to try civil work to round out my resume. I actually decided to stay on through the year because I love it so much!

Have you participated in pro bono work as a student? In what capacity?

Rachel: I have! Both of my summer internships have been pro bono, so I’ve accumulated a wealth of hours that way. I also participated in a Re-entry event that one of my professors puts on every year during my 1L year. These are people who have been previously incarcerated and the event helps them apply for benefits, apply for jobs, give them information about expungements. I helped with job applications and resumes. It was really humbling. I’m hoping to do it again this year and help out with expungements.

Tell us about your blog, lawyerella.com! When and why did you start it? Who is your target audience?

Rachel: I started lawyerella.com in January of 2018, which was right in the middle of my first year of law school. Law school blogs really helped me through the transition from college into law school, which feels like a really abrupt change, but I felt like there was a lot missing, especially as it pertained to my chronic illness. I’ve always enjoyed writing and I wanted to write about my experience going through law school and the legal profession while prioritizing my health.

I think my blog is great for anyone going through law school, but it’s especially geared towards students who either have chronic conditions of their own or just want to prioritize self care and wellness through their law school journey.

Where do you see yourself professionally in 5 years from now?

Rachel: I could see myself working in a prosecutor’s office or a legal aid firm somewhere. I really just want to do good for people, especially those who are often exploited by the system.

If you could share one message with law school applicants, what would it be?

Rachel: You don’t need a 165 on your LSAT to get a good education or have a good law school experience. My goal score was around 164 and I ended up in the upper 150s. I still got a really great scholarship and I have really solid grades. So don’t panic if you’re not hitting those high scores; it doesn’t say anything about your performance in law school and you will forget about it literally as soon as you start your classes.

Do you have questions for Rachel? Questions for us? Do you want to be featured in our next What is Graduate School Really Like? post? Know someone else who you’d love to see featured? Are there questions you’d like us to ask our students in this series? LET US KNOW!

Are you setting out on your own law school journey? We can help you reach the finish line! Check out our Law School Admissions Consulting Services to team up with an admissions expert who will help you join the ranks of thousands of Accepted clients who get accepted to their dream schools.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>How to Get Started on Your Personal Statement with One Easy Techniquehttps://blog.accepted.com/how-to-get-started-on-your-personal-statement-with-one-technique/
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 16:30:02 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=42493

Okay, you’ve calmed down after your initial essay-writing anxiety, and you still don’t know where to begin. How do you capture your whole life in the meager number of characters allotted? What is clustering? Whether you’re feeling stuck or feeling overwhelmed by all the ideas bouncing around in your head, a stellar technique to start...

Okay, you’ve calmed down after your initial essay-writing anxiety, and you still don’t know where to begin. How do you capture your whole life in the meager number of characters allotted?

What is clustering?

Whether you’re feeling stuck or feeling overwhelmed by all the ideas bouncing around in your head, a stellar technique to start with is called clustering, also known as mind mapping. Clustering is a visual form of brainstorming that allows you to free associate around a chosen topic. Although it can seem random on the surface, it usually reveals deep connections. It’s perfect for excavating the personal experiences you’ll want to draw on to enliven your essay.

How to make a cluster (or mind map) for your personal statement

Step 1: 10 seconds

Take a blank sheet of paper, write your name in the middle of it, and draw a circle around it. Alternatively, you could use one of the many online mind mapping programs, some with free trials, or even a large drawing pad.

Step 2: 5-10 minutes

Free associate from your name, writing down words as they come (include feelings, ideas, memories, experiences, accomplishments, sensations – anything goes). Create a new branch or cluster for each new theme that emerges, using lines to connect the words. Most people experience an “aha moment” after about 7 minutes.

Step 3: 5 minutes

Review your cluster and write for 5 minutes to synthesize your findings. What do you notice? Any patterns? Surprises? What items are you passionate about? You might want to go back and highlight areas you believe will be useful for your personal statement.

Total time invested: 10-20 minutes

A painless, quick exercise, and it’s likely that you’ve uncovered a theme for your essay along with a wealth of supporting examples!

Do you need guidance as you make your way through the brainstorming, writing, and editing stages of your application essay or personal statement? Our expert advisors can help! Work one-on-one with your personal consultant and create an essay that truly presents you at your very best, an essay that impresses the adcom and helps you GET ACCEPTED. Explore our services for more information.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Essay questions dealing with failure, risk, mistakes, and difficult interactions or conflict often cause applicants to cringe, squirm, and bite their nails. After all, you want to show yourself succeeding and conquering the world in your essays and personal statements, not falling down. But there’s a reason why these questions are common. Schools want to...

Essay questions dealing with failure, risk, mistakes, and difficult interactions or conflict often cause applicants to cringe, squirm, and bite their nails. After all, you want to show yourself succeeding and conquering the world in your essays and personal statements, not falling down. But there’s a reason why these questions are common. Schools want to see how you grow following a setback: Do you show resilience? Do you smile and try again? Do you view the stumble as temporary, move on, applaud your effort, and accept a helping hand when offered? Reading about setbacks is a way for the admissions committee to learn about your character.

Here are three tips to portray your setbacks as growth opportunities and occasions of achievement:

Focus on how failures lead to successes.

All humans make mistakes, and mistakes often lead to great things. You may accidentally stumble on a new idea or invention that you otherwise wouldn’t have encountered, or you may grow and learn how to become a greater person from the failure or disappointment. Thomas Edison once said about his scientific experiments, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Edison took his failures in stride and reframed them to pave his way to success. You should do the same!

TIP: Choose an experience for your essay where you experienced feelings of failure, disappointment, frustration, or inadequacy. Define your “blew it” moment, but use your “failure” to demonstrate success, accomplishment, resilience and character.

EXAMPLE: Perhaps you made a mistake in the lab that cost you weeks of work, but you learned something important about lab techniques, and now you’ve become a more fastidious researcher as a result. (Note: this needs to go way beyond the normal trial-and-error nature of research.) Or perhaps your failure was personal: maybe you neglected an important relationship, and as a result of that loss, you’ve made a point of treating people with particular respect.

Focus on why something went wrong.

Another important theme of your essay should be a deep understanding of your negative experience. By discussing what went wrong and why it went wrong, you’re showing the adcom that you don’t just place blame on circumstances, but that you look for real answers and real solutions.

TIP: In your essay, reflect on the reasons behind your failure and the steps you took to avoid similar mistakes.

EXAMPLE: If you pushed to complete a work project resulting in resentment among colleagues, then you should write about the extra attention you now pay to the suggestions and efforts of your colleagues.

Focus on what you’ve learned from the experience on a personal level.

Not only do your failures help you stay away from future failures, but they also impact you as a person.

TIP: Write about the importance of owning up to your mistakes. The humility and maturity that accompany owning up to your error are excellent self-improvement qualities to highlight.

EXAMPLE: If you made a programming error, a client caught it, and you accepted responsibility for your actions, you can write about how you’ve since implemented more stringent quality assurance protocols, and how you’ve accepted that you need better QA – that you aren’t infallible.

Of course, don’t just talk about “resilience.” Demonstrate it through anecdotes that show you picking yourself up, improving, acknowledging effort, persisting, and ultimately succeeding in one way or another. By portraying these qualities in your essay, you will convince the adcom that you can indeed conquer the world, or at the very least pick yourself up after you stumble.

Not sure how to move forward with a failure-themed essay? Our consultants at Accepted can brainstorm with you on how to present your best self even in tough situations. Be in touch today!

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

I am taking time off for family this week, and as a result I decided to air an encore of one of our most popular shows ever, Focus on Fit. I chose it not only because of its popularity, but because the topic is relevant to so many, if not all, specialties. A solid understanding...

I am taking time off for family this week, and as a result I decided to air an encore of one of our most popular shows ever, Focus on Fit.

I chose it not only because of its popularity, but because the topic is relevant to so many, if not all, specialties. A solid understanding of fit is critical to success in so many parts of the application process, including the essays and interviews, either one of which just may be stressing you at the moment.

If you like this episode, I’d also like to recommend that you download our free guide, Fitting in and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions. Your application needs to show that you will do both, and that’s the difficult paradox at the heart of admissions. Master that paradox, and you are well on your way to acceptance.

Thanks as always for listening to Admissions Straight Talk. I’ll talk to you again next week! In the meantime, here is Focus on Fit.

The personal statement serves as a terrific opportunity to share with admissions committees an interesting and unique aspect of your life. How much should you tell, and how much is too much? When I applied to college, I wrote a personal statement describing some challenging family circumstances I’d had while growing up. I can still...

The personal statement serves as a terrific opportunity to share with admissions committees an interesting and unique aspect of your life. How much should you tell, and how much is too much?

When I applied to college, I wrote a personal statement describing some challenging family circumstances I’d had while growing up. I can still remember my best friend warning me that it was too risky, too intense. So I went back to the essay and asked myself: What did I learn from this experience? Does it speak to my strengths and individual qualities, or is it something meant for a therapist’s office or a private journal?

I studied the essay carefully and made sure it gave the reader a good sense of who I really was, and that it wasn’t just about the people in my family. I was careful to focus on what I had learned from these challenges and how the experience had made me a more independent, compassionate person.

I decided to send it in, and I was lucky to get great responses. (In fact, one admissions counselor even wrote me a personal note!) So, in that case, taking the leap was well worth it. But, in some cases, it is not.

What are the adcoms looking for?

All admissions committees want to accept a wide range of interesting, talented applicants. They want – as you would, if you were picking a team of any sort – a diverse group of smart, motivated, innovative, and unique individuals who can come together to create an interesting, richly layered community. They want people with integrity who will get along with others, and they want people who will add to their campus in an endless variety of ways. They also want applicants who are stable and confident, and who have already achieved important things in their lives.

How do you choose a personal, but not too personal essay topic?

Prepare for your personal statement by listing all of the meaningful events in your life. Which experiences really changed you, influenced you, and made you the person you are today?

Good questions you may want to ask yourself include:

Did you grow up overseas?

Do you speak several languages?

Are you from a cultural background that might make you stand out or may have enriched your life in a special way?

Do you have a handicap that has in fact made you stronger?

Do you love to cook Thai food, run marathons, play the piano?

Do you have a passion or interest that might be unusual but gives meaning to your life?

What have you had to work really hard at?

Then, mark the ones that helped you learn what you want to do with your life, the ones that led you to clarify your values, even if they are very personal. Ask yourself: Do these experiences make me sound emotionally unstable, ambivalent, or insecure? If so, take them to a therapist, not the admissions committee! But, if your topic has helped you become stronger and wiser, then I’d consider it to be a viable option.

Tips for sharing personal stories

Here are a few tips to further help you determine if your personal statement is too personal or just right for displaying your inner truths and ambitions:

Always be honest. Admissions committees can smell exaggeration from a mile away!

Don’t give details about your current or past romantic relationships. This is an example of information you can share with your therapist or best friend, but not the adcom!

Emphasize what you learned. You should jump on all opportunities to discuss what you did or what you would like to do with that knowledge or experience, not just on what happened.

If you pass the above criteria, then I’d say go for it. Be yourself. Make it interesting. And tell the truth.

The expert advisors at Accepted can help you with your application essays, from choosing a topic (and making sure it’s an appropriate one!) to putting the final touches and making it ready to submit. Explore our Graduate Application Services and we’ll match you with a personal admissions coach who will help you GET ACCEPTED.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

To really draw your readers into your goal-focused essay, you’re going to want to lay the scene for your future accomplishments. After all, what better way to convince the adcom of your ambitions than to illustrate them in your essay? First, identify your goal. When you begin your essay, try showing yourself having reached your...

To really draw your readers into your goal-focused essay, you’re going to want to lay the scene for your future accomplishments. After all, what better way to convince the adcom of your ambitions than to illustrate them in your essay?

First, identify your goal.

When you begin your essay, try showing yourself having reached your long-term goal, rather than merely stating what it is. For example: Are you talking on the phone to clients about your electronics recycling system? Video conferencing with workers in a Southeast Asian outsourcing company? Helping NGOs build professional networks through available connectivity products?

Then, go into detail about what you’re actually doing at this future moment.

Don’t just explain that you’re working as a data analyst, but truly describe what you will look like and what you’re feeling at a particular moment. Where will you be sitting or standing? What will you say? What will happen because of what you say?

Next, draw your reader deeper into your future.

Don’t stop at the snapshot of your workday. What happens next? How have you been able to get to this point? What is the next goal you want to reach?

It is not hard to go from something tangible – a person executing job responsibilities – to an analysis of what that person needs to add to their knowledge bank to reach that career goal.

Finally, show how your background, professional experience, and other activities and achievements provide the framework for this snapshot of the future.

What are your professional and community service activities?

Help the admissions committee members get excited about the way you serve your community and employer by showing scenes of yourself involved in particular activities. Get into the details of your experience by asking yourself some questions:

Are you talking with a mentally or physically disabled client?

Are you on the phone with a client, vendor, or sponsor for a fundraising event?

Are you searching for talent?

Are you on a sports team?

What does it look like where you are? What are you doing?

What are you saying or thinking or feeling and what happens as a consequence of what you have done?

What have you learned from the experience?

How do you know you learned it?

How has your family and cultural background influenced who you are today?

Show yourself with your family in a typical room or event or show yourself alone and missing them. Or show yourself with them at a time that was definitive for everyone. For example:

What does this example of leadership tell you about the attributes leadership requires?

How have your experience, activities, and commitments played a role in the evolution of your goals?

Show the committee what the activity requires of you by placing yourself in a scene from that activity:

What equipment are you handling?

What are the dangers or pitfalls you must avoid?

What are you and others saying?

What are you hoping for by participating in this activity?

What does your participation mean to you and to others?

The value of setting the scene in your goal-oriented essay

Building scenes lets you start your essays without using exposition just to fill the reader in. If after you start the scene, you realize you do need to fill the reader in on some details, you can do so because after you have established the scene, the reader will already be interested in learning more and the exposition will not jar the reader out of the picture.

Explore our Admissions Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you mine your experiences and measure your ambitions to create essays that paint the perfect picture of your long-term goals. Learn more about how we can help you GET ACCEPTED.

]]>The Art of Interviewing—Are You a “Can” or a “Cannot”?https://blog.accepted.com/the-art-of-interviewing-are-you-a-can-or-a-cannot/
Sun, 29 Sep 2019 16:01:26 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=34240

“I am doomed… This is a disaster… I really never expected this… What am I going to do?” This from Daniel, a prospective PhD student. I couldn’t imagine what had happened to cause such a negative response, especially as Daniel is a very strong candidate with impeccable credentials. My shock was further compounded when he...

“I am doomed… This is a disaster… I really never expected this… What am I going to do?” This from Daniel, a prospective PhD student. I couldn’t imagine what had happened to cause such a negative response, especially as Daniel is a very strong candidate with impeccable credentials. My shock was further compounded when he went on to tell me that he had been invited to sit for an interview. Okay, now I was completely confused, especially in light of the fact that this type of invitation is usually cause for celebration; it means that the academic committee is giving serious consideration to your application and wants to know more about you. I couldn’t help but ask, “And this is a disaster because? What am I missing here? Talk to me!”

Shifting from a “cannot” to a “can”

Wow! The floodgates opened. He said, “You don’t understand… You don’t get it! I am no good at interviews. In fact, I ‘choke’ even on simple job interviews. This is not good. I thought I could bypass this requirement. Now what do I do?” I told him that I could teach him how to master the art of interviewing. He dismissed my offer by saying, “You can’t teach someone interviewing skills. It is something one can either do or cannot do. I am one of the cannots.” I shocked him into silence when I informed him gently and respectfully that I actually teach the art of interviewing in my Introduction to Communication class. I said, “I can take you from a “cannot” to a “can.” I promised to develop an interview preparation plan for him and we scheduled a follow-up meeting.

The “Three Plus One” strategy

At our next meeting I told Daniel that I had developed a “Three Plus One” strategy that would thoroughly prepare him for the PhD interview(s). The “Three Plus One” strategy, which I had “borrowed” from some of the interview techniquest that I use in my communication classes, is composed of:

The Pre-Interview stage

The Interview stage

The Post-Interview stage

And the Plus One, which is the Mock/Practice Interview stage

The plan includes review and discussion of the bulleted items in each of the first three stages and then application of lessons learned in the Mock Interview stage. Upon completion of the Mock Interview, Daniel would receive verbal feedback as well as a comprehensive written assessment of his performance.

Making your way through the different stages

Here’s how we did it:

STAGE 1: Pre-Interview

Research all of the website pages and any readily available print materials related to the university, program, and faculty. You need to be prepared during the interview to show your full knowledge of the special features offered: size of the program, national and/or international rankings, accreditations, TA offerings, scholarships, interdisciplinary opportunities, faculty research, scholarly conferences and publications, etc. You may want to reference some of this when you are answering interview questions. Remember you should avoid asking questions that might reveal to the committee that you did not take the time and effort to appropriately research the materials available.

Compile a list/script of questions that you believe may be asked during the interview and create talking points for your answers. However, do not write out the answers word for word as you want to sound spontaneous and natural rather than scripted and memorized.

Carefully consider what you wear to the interview. How we package ourselves impacts how we are perceived by others and affects how we feel about ourselves. Choose attire that empowers and emphasizes your confidence and credibility. This may vary depending on the program for which you are being interviewed. For example, for business programs, you may choose to look “corporate” and for MFA programs you may choose attire that represents your creative and artistic nature.

Conduct a real or virtual dry run in terms of travel to the interview. If possible, allow for traffic and other delays by planning to arrive at least a half-hour earlier than scheduled. This will allow you time to get a feel for the campus and, perhaps, even reference it during your interview. It may also serve as an additional talking point or question.

Practice positive self-talk and visualization which you can then revisit before the actual interview begins.

Practice some deep diaphragmatic breathing and muscle relaxing exercises to use before the start of the interview. Deep cleansing breaths really work.

Although you may not be asked for it, bring multiple copies of your CV/resume in case they are requested by committee members.

Review the statement of purpose that you submitted with your application to this school in case you are questioned on part or parts of it by individual committee members. You may even choose to reference and/or update something that you included in your statement.

Make sure that you perceive this experience as a wonderful opportunity to present yourself in person rather than an obstacle or challenge. A positive mindset is critical to your success.

Stage 2: The Interview

Keep in mind that the evaluation of you as a candidate begins the minute you step on campus. You would probably be surprised by how often I have heard members of the academic committee question the department secretary, receptionist, and/or current students to get a completely different perspective on a particular candidate. This is a very common practice in job interviews as well.

Before you enter the interview area, use some power-inducing nonverbal gestures to increase your confidence level. I suggest you visit TED.com and view Amy Cuddy’s video on the power of nonverbal.

Avoid one word answers even if the interviewer uses a close-ended question. Utilize the techniques of behavioral interviewing by providing specific examples or short narratives to exhibit your strengths. For example, if you are asked if you consider yourself a thorough researcher, you shouldn’t just say “yes,” but refer to what you have accomplished that clearly exhibits how thorough a researcher you are. Telling stories may well set you apart from other candidates and make you far more memorable.

Effective eye contact is critical in interviewing. If you are being interviewed by a committee, make sure that you make eye contact with each and every committee member. Eye contact will positively reinforce your passion, sincerity, and willingness to engage in academic discourse.

Monitor your posture and movement. Sit up straight and lean in ever so slightly as this will exhibit that you are fully engaged and deeply interested in the interview.

Avoid wringing your hands, tapping your feet, or crossing and uncrossing your legs. This will draw negative attention to your actions rather than to all of the wonderful things you would like to share.

Speak at a moderate rate and volume. The last thing you want is to make the interviewer uncomfortable with either a “too loud” voice, a “whisper soft voice,” or a “rapid fire” rate of speech.” Make every attempt to minimize anything that might disturb or distort the message.

It is more than okay to share your passion for the field of study and smile when appropriate. A pleasant manner and engaging personality always make a candidate more memorable.

Ask thought-provoking questions based on your research interests and the program offerings. Never ask a question that has an answer that is readily available online. It will send a very negative message (see note in the Pre-Interview stage, bullet #1). However, you can use the information from your web research as a point of departure. For example: “I noted on your website that you host several professional conferences on campus. Are graduate students encouraged to participate and/or present papers? If so, I would love to be involved. I participated in XYZ conference as an undergraduate and it was a valuable experience.”

Stage 3: Post-Interview

Make sure that you write the names and contact information for each interviewer for follow-up thank-you notes.

Personalize each note so that it is clear that you really remember the interviewer by referencing something specific from the interview. Interviewers often compare notes so it wouldn’t serve you to write the exact same note to each interviewer. Make it personal. For example: “I really enjoyed our conversation about________ .”

Conduct a thorough self-assessment of your performance on the interview. Ask yourself specific questions and offer yourself constructive criticism, positive feedback, and suggestions for future interviews. Questions might include: What did I do well? How did I handle challenging questions? Which responses appeared to be received most positively? Why? What made those answers stand out over all others? In what way or ways might I improve? Be honest but don’t “beat yourself up.” Learn from the experience. On a personal note: Even after over 30 years as a public speaker and professor of public speaking I still, after every speech, evaluate and take notes for improvement on my next speech.

Plus One: The Mock Interview

After Daniel and I worked through each of the first 3 stages, I strongly suggested that he prepare to be interviewed by me. He was a little nervous but also very excited to try out many of the strategies and techniques that we had reviewed. We scheduled the mock interview for the following week so that he could fully prepare himself. I was pleased that “Mr. Cannot” was slowly transforming into “Mr. Can.”

How the mock interview helps

I interviewed Daniel for about 1 hour. It was just okay at the start. He appeared a little uncomfortable and somewhat anxious. It changed dramatically as soon as Daniel began to implement some of the techniques that we covered in the “Three Plus One Plan.” From that point on, his confidence level increased – he sat up straight, made wonderful eye contact, and even shared a memorable story about one of his research experiences. It was engaging, humorous, and spotlighted his passion for the field.

Wow, what a difference! My positive response to the story further encouraged him. His guard came down, and as such, he delivered an excellent interview. I even asked him a closed ended question to see how he would handle it. His answer was to tell me a story that was not only interesting, but showed me who he was. He also posed some exceptionally thoughtful questions about research opportunities with individual faculty members. When we were done he asked me how he did. I threw it right back at him, “How do you think you did?”

He laughed out loud and said, “It’s a first. I actually enjoyed the interview. Who knew that with the right preparation and mind set I could become one of the “cans”? I told him that I would follow-up with a comprehensive written review which would include a few constructive suggestions for him. He promised to compare it with his self-assessment. He thanked me and said that he was now looking forward to his “real” interview and that he would stay in touch.

I imagine you might like to know what happened on the “real” interview. Daniel probably said it best: “Disaster averted. Huge success.”

The best way to feel confident going into your interview is to be absolutely sure you’ve taken the right steps to prepare. A mock interview and feedback from an Accepted admissions expert can help you put your best foot forward on the day of your interview. Contact us today!

As a Dean of Graduate Admissions for over 10 years, Carol Drummer, signed off on over 4,500 graduate applications annually. She is a communication professor and author of "College Is Not 13th Grade-- An Easy to Read Guide for Parents of College Bound Students." Carol has helped clients get accepted to Ph.D. Psy.D, DOT, DPT, PA, MHA, MSW, and masters in Speech Language Pathology, Business Analytics, Accounting, Global Affairs, Counseling, Architecture, Design Engineering , Nutrition, Exercise Physiology to name a few. Want Carol to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

One of the things admissions committee members tell us again and again is that they wish – really, truly wish – that applicants would not try to write what they imagine the adcom wants to hear, and instead would just be themselves. Admissions committee members time and time again say they wish applicants would answer...

One of the things admissions committee members tell us again and again is that they wish – really, truly wish – that applicants would not try to write what they imagine the adcom wants to hear, and instead would just be themselves. Admissions committee members time and time again say they wish applicants would answer their questions, if they are asking a specific question, and in all cases reveal what they really want admissions committee readers to know about them.

3 ways to stand out by being yourself

How can you be yourself in your admissions essay? How can you let your authentic voice shine through so that the person reading your essay feels they’ve met you – and wants to get to know you better?

Write about the right experiences

When writing your admissions essays/personal statement, choose experiences that mean something to you. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t, just because you think it will impress the adcom. Everyone has a unique set of experiences and perspectives – embrace them, and you’ll stand out.

And when you tell your story, also explain why it’s significant. What was the impact on others? The “other” can be an individual, a team, a group, an employer, or your company. And why is it important to you and your development? How will it add to the readers’ understanding of you as an individual, a potential member of their community, and a future professional and alum?

Be truthful

Don’t exaggerate or falsify anything in your profile. That’s automatically not being yourself! And it’s a ticket to the “rejection” pile.

Find an authentic voice

Don’t change your voice for the sake of the essay. Some people worry about their word choice; they want to use sophisticated vocabulary to dazzle the adcom. Here’s the thing: it’s best to write like a human being. If you don’t know those words and wouldn’t normally use them, skip them. Along related lines: if you’re not naturally a funny person, it’s probably not the best time to try to crack jokes.

Is your essay effectively introducing YOU?

Your unique experiences, perspective, and goals will help you stand out in a crowded field, as long as you convey what is special about you. And then you will be YOU.

One way to get a sense of how effectively your essay is introducing you is to ask someone else to read it. We’ve read thousands of application essays and successfully coached people like you to success. We have the extensive admissions experience to know which parts of your profile make you stand out and how you can present yourself so that you seem like a real person. We can give you a professional evaluation of your essay, and specific advice on how to strengthen it before you apply.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

If your law school’s application offers optional or extra opportunities for submitting supplementary materials, you are wise to take advantage of them and give the admissions committee more information about you, more reasons to admit you. When writing these supplemental materials, choose your topics carefully and write an essay that will make the admissions committee...

If your law school’s application offers optional or extra opportunities for submitting supplementary materials, you are wise to take advantage of them and give the admissions committee more information about you, more reasons to admit you. When writing these supplemental materials, choose your topics carefully and write an essay that will make the admissions committee glad they have more to read, NOT one that makes them wish they had less.

Addendums for law school applications

Be authentic

Addendums are a perfect place to address any weaknesses in your application, i.e. low grades, mediocre LSAT scores, or an off-year where everything just seemed to fall apart. Remember that you do not want to offer excuses – only explanations and context. I had one applicant who told me she went to take her LSAT, misjudged how long it would take her to arrive at the test center, and thus arrived frazzled and hungry because she didn’t have time to eat breakfast. She asked me what I thought of her explaining these circumstances to the admissions committee. My answer? I told her I thought they would think she should have been better organized and brought a snack.

Use this space to explain that you have a history of poor standardized test taking (if you do), that your mother was seriously ill (if she was), or that you had a sudden and drastic life changing circumstance that required you to take on full-time employment (if you did). Do not supply a fluffy excuse for your shortcomings, or worse, lie about why you had a horrible semester or year.

Stick to the facts

Admissions committees are filled with people who understand family crises, debilitating illness, and circumstances that are beyond one’s control. They are not particularly sympathetic to immaturity, irresponsibility, or the expectation that too much partying will be accepted as a reasonable excuse for failing your political science course. If you have a valid and convincing story to tell, use this space to tell it. Remember that the best approach is a “just the facts” kind of tone, free of an appeal for pity or sympathy. You want them to know what happened, not to feel sorry for you.

Optional essays in law school

Go the extra mile

Many law schools are following the business school model of offering an optional essay for interested applicants. You want to be one of those interested applicants. Yes, it is more work. Yes, it is another thing to squeeze into an already packed schedule, but hey – you’re going to be a law student. Get used to it! Your goal is to rise above the crowd, to surge to the top of the applicant pool. You need to convince the adcom you have more to say and do not shy away from challenges. You are the creme de la creme.

What should I write?

If you are lucky you have lots of possible things to discuss. Your experience working for Habitat for Humanity? What it was like to have a hitless season in college baseball, only to score an out of the park home run in the playoff game? Your family’s trip to Costa Rica and how it broadened your horizons? Some schools will give you a list of suggested topics, but many will simply say, “Is there anything else you would like the admissions committee to know about that is not included elsewhere in your application?” Use this opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills, your determination to rise to the challenge, and to give them another insight into who you are outside of the numbers.

Extra letters of recommendation

Should I send more?

If you choose your recommenders wisely, the standard two, or sometimes three, letters of recommendation will usually be sufficient. Don’t send more than the school asks for. They have many applications to read, and you don’t want to annoy them by not following directions. There is one exception to this rule: If you are waitlisted at a school that you very much want to attend, you can attempt to sway the committee to move you onto the accepted roster by sending another letter of recommendation.

How to go about it

You will want to write a follow up letter (see below) where you will state that another letter of recommendation is coming. Choose this recommender well, and make sure you tell them exactly what you would like them to say. This letter should not only emphasize your strengths, but also should describe how you have overcome any past weaknesses, especially those that you feel contributed to landing you on the waitlist. But the most important qualification of all is that your recommender be someone who doesn’t necessarily wear the biggest wig, but who does know you best and will write a glowing recommendation. And if they are an alumnus of the school to which you are applying, all the better.

Law school waitlist letters

The dreaded “maybe”

After months of uncertainty and waiting for a yes or a no answer to your request for admission, you are greeted with a wishy-washy “maybe.” While this is obviously not as good as a warm welcoming “YES!” it beats the heck out of a flat out “NO.” So let the campaign begin. If you want to be admitted to the school, you need to let the committee know that this isn’t simply one of the many schools to which you applied, but your number one choice.

Demonstrate your enthusiasm!

Everyone wants to be wanted, and admissions committees are no exception. If they believe that you are completely dedicated to their school, and that no other law school will do, you have already moved ahead of 90% of the competition. How do you convince them that what you say is true? First, you write a swift but thorough response to notification that you’ve been placed on the waitlist. In this letter, you tell them why you are interested in their school, what you plan to bring to the party, and/or anything that has changed since your original application. Demonstrate you are interested, have done your homework, and that nothing is more important to you than an acceptance from their school.

Videos, photographs, and any off-beat submissions

In general, all of these extras belong in your circular file. So before you mail off that life-size poster of yourself wearing Big University’s sweatshirt, remember that no matter how clever or amusing your submission might be, you are applying to law school, not the circus or Survivor. Treat your application seriously, and you will be seriously considered.

Do you need help writing your personal statement or any other “extras” for your law school application? Explore our Law School Admissions Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you create the application you need (and all of its varied components) to get ACCEPTED!

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Each year, Accepted consultants are witnessing a recurring epidemic. And it’s worse than you can imagine: Generic-itis. What generic-itis looks like Here is an example of a severe case of generic-–itis that I drafted based on several different examples I recently read, along with 25 years of experience in this business: I find Top Choice’s...

Each year, Accepted consultants are witnessing a recurring epidemic. And it’s worse than you can imagine: Generic-itis.

What generic-itis looks like

Here is an example of a severe case of generic-–itis that I drafted based on several different examples I recently read, along with 25 years of experience in this business:

I find Top Choice’s global MBA program very exciting and interesting. With it, I will be able to elevate my already diverse knowledge of the world to a higher and more sophisticated level. Combining the business analytical skills that I will obtain at Top Choice with my advanced mathematical skills, I will be able to help the fast-growing industry of clean energy progress and profit. Moreover, I will explore Top Choice’s other outstanding academic fields, thus exposing me to resources outside the business school — not to mention Top Choice’s amazing students and alumni, who will become my colleagues and the network with whom I will share these transformative experiences. Top Choice will certainly add to my expertise and help me achieve my goals in the future. Having ambitious goals, I need the help of a great school like Top Choice, a school that also has lofty goals.

I can and will use Top Choice’s education to the fullest possible extent. Today, I would be proud to join the community of Top Choice, and tomorrow, Top Choice will be proud to have me as an alumnus, connecting Top Choice to the world of sustainable business and clean energy.

I hope you are thinking that no one really writes like this. In that case, your immune system is strong even if your conclusion is incorrect. However, if the above bears any resemblance to the reasons you provide for wanting to attend a specific program, you are suffering from generic-–itis.

Treatment

For the adcom: Deny the application as quickly as possible and move on to the next one.

For applicants: Find the specifics in your target program that compel you to apply and attend. Tie those specifics to your future goals or to your educational preferences. Use these specifics to write meaningful, unique, personal essays.

Although the example above is for an MBA application, if you are writing “Why this school” essays or paragraphs for college, law, medical school or any other program, you too could be suffering from generic-itis.

Have yourself tested for generic-itis today! Accepted’s staff of experienced, professional consultants would be happy to help you just as we have helped thousands of other generic-itis sufferers. Explore our Catalog of Admissions Services for immediate results!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Interview with Brigitte Suhr, international lawyer, former admissions reader and current Accepted law school admissions consultant [Show summary] Accepted consultant Brigitte Suhr brings a wealth of law school admissions knowledge to today’s podcast. As an application reader at UVA School of Law, Brigitte read more than 2,500 applications, so she knows what works and what...

Interview with Brigitte Suhr, international lawyer, former admissions reader and current Accepted law school admissions consultant [Show summary]

Accepted consultant Brigitte Suhr brings a wealth of law school admissions knowledge to today’s podcast. As an application reader at UVA School of Law, Brigitte read more than 2,500 applications, so she knows what works and what doesn’t. She shares her insight during this podcast.

Find out what a UVA law school application reader looks for [Show notes]

Our guest today, Brigitte Suhr, earned her BA from UT Austin and her JD from UVA. She then went on to travel the world as an international lawyer, working for Human Rights Watch, the International Criminal Court, and other foundations and NGOs. For approximately two years prior to joining Accepted, Brigitte worked as an application reader for her alma mater, UVA School of Law, and in that capacity reviewed over 2,500 applications. She was the one recommending admit or deny. Let’s find out how she made those recommendations.

You’ve had a fascinating career working in international and human rights law around the world, why did you decide to become an admissions reader at UVA? [2:04]

I had worked for many years at an international level and had to step back for family reasons. I started my own consulting company working with nonprofits and foundations. As I was building that up I had the opportunity to work with UVA and thought it sounded like fun and a great way to get back in touch with my alma mater. Now I am busier, but didn’t want to leave admissions completely behind, which is why I became an admissions counselor.

When you were reviewing applications for UVA Law, did you have a particular bucket of applicants that you reviewed? [2:53]

I typically reviewed applicants who were below the median in both GPA and LSAT or above in one and significantly below in the other.

When the numbers were low, what made you decide to say yes? [3:12]

That’s when other factors come in. The personal statement is really important, the reasons why (for example why was a GPA so low), and do they convince me that they are capable of doing well in law school and being a good lawyer.

How did you go through the application? Those that came to you were already behind the eight ball, right? [3:57]

Yes and no. When you think of a school as selective as UVA, it didn’t take much to be in my pile since the medians were so high – you could still be in the 90th percentile and be in my pile. I read the application from top to bottom, however it came from LSAC. Typically first was info on activities and service, then the personal statement, everything but the transcripts and LORs. The second attachment had those items. Essentially, I started building my impression from their own submissions, then I would go to the LORs.

What made a personal statement tell you that its author deserved your vote and recommendation? [6:01]

A personal statement could capture my attention if it was a really interesting story, extremely well written, or both. Sometimes it was less that it was groundbreaking but obvious the applicant was a good writer, observant, and astute. Other times a personal statement or addenda provided the why for issues in the transcript. That works best when you have a way to show you truly overcame it.

What about addenda addressing a weak GPA? What made for a good one? A bad one? [8:02]

The ones that are good identify what was going on in that person’s life during a dip – eating disorders, undiagnosed ADD, parental situation, working fulltime, freshman lack of focus, etc. Oftentimes kids are on their own for the first time, and things do happen. Write about the circumstances persuasively and don’t get dragged down. Bad addenda typically should have not been done at all. If you are above the median, don’t do it, because it is attracting attention to something the admissions committee otherwise wouldn’t notice. Bad ones also do things like blame the professor, blame someone else, or don’t take responsibility for the GPA, like, “I was partying too much and didn’t take my college degree seriously.”

Did an addendum attempting to provide context for a below-median LSAT ever work? [12:48]

Those are much harder to have something worth saying. Every once in awhile if a student points out a below median LSAT, but then they went to a highly selective college and did very well, it is worth saying that the LSAT may not be representative of their abilities but the evidence suggests they would do well in law school. Obviously, this only works if you have a high GPA. Everything adds up in a negative way if you have a low GPA as well.

If applicants had academic infractions or a criminal record, were they toast? [13:48]

Also with this there is a huge range of what works and what doesn’t. There were ones where I thought wow if you ever have this problem this is how you talk about it, and others where I thought, please don’t say that! Minor infractions like traffic, beer in the dorm, had little influence. DUIs are more serious, though I might overlook it if there was just the one in your entire life. Shoplifting was a heartbreaking one for me, though again a huge difference between a 13 year old and 22 year old doing it. Context and detail are important. Violence is hard, but one of the best addenda I ever read was an applicant who had made a drunken violent mistake, one time in their life. People do deserve a second chance, so again, context and detail really matter.

How should people from well-represented groups approach writing a diversity statement? [15:43]

It depends on the prompt. Some schools have the prompt, some disallow it, and some are open. It depends on what you have to say and how you say it. I have read some very interesting statements from non-underrepresented groups that highlight something interesting you bring to the classroom, or a personal experience that’s caused you to see the world in a distinct way. One thing I saw a lot was that people raised in dual cultures almost always had something interesting to say, bridging two cultures, languages, etc. Some of my favorite essays were written by them. This essay again is as much how they say it as what they are saying.

How do all the components of the application fit together? [17:14]

If you decide to write the personal statement about something that could be considered diversity-related, don’t write the diversity statement. Don’t write it, because I don’t need it – essentially I’d be reading the same info twice. Make sure the personal statement, diversity statement, and addenda have different content and complement each other.

Did you like to see a sense of direction in the law in the applications that you reviewed? Or a Why UVA section? [19:32]

That definitely mattered to me. The why law aspect is certainly important – you need to let people know why you want to go, especially if your resume does not read law. You don’t have to say exactly what you want to do (but if you do know, then state it), but you must show a compelling reason to go.

What do applicants frequently just not understand about the law school admissions process that they should really grasp before they start applying? [21:57]

Applying to law school is something that takes time and needs attention given to each of the primary pieces of the application. Usually when you are applying to law school your GPA is either set or reasonably set, but think about how your LSAT piece looks, is it what you want it to be? If not, can you take it again? What can you do to maximize each bucket while also thinking about the whole? What am I saying? What am I leaving out? The time piece is really important as well. With rolling admissions it does make sense to apply early, and starting the process early is important, too, because it is time consuming and requires a lot of careful thought, so rushing is not good.

What are the most common mistakes to avoid in law school applications? [23:51]

Some are careless errors of typos, bad grammar, repetitiveness, but coming across attitudinal can be a problem. At UVA we ask about activities and service, and one applicant took issue with the question. That was very strange. Sometimes the wrong essay is attached – “This is why I want to go to Duke.” Not a great look!

What do you wish I would have asked you? [28:38]

With regard to the “Why X law school,” it’s useful if reasonably well done, sincere, and researched. If it’s a cut and paste from the website that doesn’t help. It isn’t required by any stretch, but I did like them, and sometimes read breathtaking ones. I would always make a note of it if there was something interesting said. In terms of overall advice, I would say, start early, be thoughtful, and be careful.

This might be a great opening line for a comedy night at a university student center, but can you use humor in a graduate school application essay? Should you even try? The answer is…maybe. If you have a funny bone, use it If you can use humor effectively, it will help you stand out from...

This might be a great opening line for a comedy night at a university student center, but can you use humor in a graduate school application essay? Should you even try? The answer is…maybe.

If you have a funny bone, use it

If you can use humor effectively, it will help you stand out from your competitors in an unexpected way. (“Oh, is she the one who joked about her first time playing jazz in a live audience?” an adcom member might ask while reviewing the season’s applicants.) Humor can make us appear more human and relatable, especially with the most popular form of humor: the gently self-deprecating remark. For example, “My single New Year’s resolution this year is to buy a new bathroom scale, and perhaps one day use it.” Or, “I discovered that I had a textbook case of ‘Congenital Fraidy Cat Syndrome.’ I knew it: my expanding medical knowledge was slowly killing me.”

This kind of humor reveals a writer’s vulnerabilities, making the readers sympathetic. If you lack the confidence to show that vulnerability, or the confidence to try to get a laugh, do not try. It is far more important to speak with your authentic voice. But if you have a track record of getting laughs among friends, don’t be afraid to use humor – judiciously – in a personal essay.

And don’t forget: as a grad school applicant, your goal is to show yourself as a focused, qualified, intelligent, and capable individual. Your essay can include some humor, but you’re writing an essay, not a comedy sketch.

Examples of good humor

Here are a few examples of how – and how not – to use humor:

Good: “In all my travels, I had never before sipped anything called Toadstool Brew. After I was finished, I hoped never to have to sip it again.” This works because it is gently self-deprecating; you are poking fun at your own lack of appreciation for an exotic tea.

Not good: “In all my travels, I had never seen a more bizarre-looking individual. My first thought was, ‘This guy could get a gig on a reality TV show in the States.’” This doesn’t work because poking fun at someone else looks petty and rude.

Don’t ever use humor at the expense of answering the question

Never force humor into your writing. Use it when it feels natural, and perhaps try it out on another reader first. Adcom members may appreciate a laugh while reading through all those serious essays, but make sure that your essay reveals your focus and intelligence, and not just your funny bone.

Some additional thoughts from Accepted’s CEO

In this one-minute video, Linda Abraham expresses her opinion on humor in admissions. She takes a slightly more cautious stance.

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Don’t forget: Your primary goal in your application is to illustrate your fit for the program, and this is done by answering the questions. If you are injecting too much humor (yes, a relative term that you’ll need to weigh on your own), then it’s quite possible that you’ll miss the mark on this.

If you’re a funny person by nature, by all means let a little humor flow into your essays, but never at the expense of a solid, compelling essay that truly speaks to your skills.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, and other Accepted ebooks, MBA Letters of Recommendation That Rock and Law School Letters of Recommendation that Rock. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

I suggest that applicants begin assembling materials for their applications as early as possible in advance of admissions deadlines. One of the first items you should start working on is your resume, a document that all professionals should always have updated and at the ready. 6 tips for creating a rockin’ resume Here are some...

I suggest that applicants begin assembling materials for their applications as early as possible in advance of admissions deadlines. One of the first items you should start working on is your resume, a document that all professionals should always have updated and at the ready.

6 tips for creating a rockin’ resume

Here are some tips on creating the ideal admissions-worthy resume.

Resume tip #1: Know how far back in time to detail in your resume.

As a general rule, if you are applying to graduate school and have at least two years of work experience, your high school activities should not be included in your resume. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, if you won a prestigious national award in high school, you may certainly consider including this important recognition.

Resume tip #2: Follow some general resume formatting rules.

These tips include:

There should be no more than four bullet points beneath each position.

Each bullet should ideally be no more than two lines long.

To ease the reader’s eye strain, the font should not be smaller than 10 pt.

Margins should be as close to one inch all around as possible – I, personally, will not reduce them lower than 0.7 inches.

Resume tip #3: Prioritize your bullets.

How should applicants to the top international graduate programs focus the resume on their most relevant and compelling experiences? Limit the number of bullet points describing your early entry-level roles and instead expand the space dedicated to those in which you made the most impact.

For instance, if you were promoted from an entry-level programming position with your company, then you don’t even need to dedicate a separate line to describe that first role. Instead, you can simply impress the reader by describing the fast pace of promotion in a line of the job description, like this:

Team Lead, IT Consulting Company 2017-Present

Twice promoted from Analyst (2017-2018) to Senior Analyst (2019) and then Team Lead in record 12 months, a full 4 times faster than the average rate of promotion.

Resume tip #4: Learn how to be succinct!

What if one position has allowed you significant leadership opportunities and impact? Or what if you have been in your current role for several years? How can you detail all that you have accomplished in just four bullet points? The trick is to break that down into sections, like this for example:

Private Equity Associate, PE Firm 2018-Present

Lines of job description here…

Leadership Accomplishments Include:

• 1st point

• 2nd point

• 3rd point

• 4th point

Financial Impacts Include:

• 1st point

• 2nd point

• 3rd point

• 4th point

Resume tip #5: Quantify your impact.

Keep in mind that the majority – if not all – of those bullet points should include quantifiable impact that you had on the organization. Breaking up a bulk of text with numbers and section headings makes the entire document more compelling.

Resume tip #6: Embrace the page’s white space.

To ensure that your document is easy to read and keeps the admissions officer’s attention, you need to include ample white space. To add some white space above each position in Microsoft Word, highlight the title line of each row (hold the Ctrl button down as you click to keep them all highlighted), then click on Format, Paragraph, then in the Spacing Before box try at least 4 pt. (if you have more space left on the page at the end you can go to 6 pt.). Do the same for the bullet points throughout the document and try 2 pt. or 3 pt. spacing before each of those lines.

Check out this pdf file to see the difference this little formatting trick can make.

For one-on-one guidance on your graduate school admissions resume, check out our Resume Services. Your personal advisor is standing by ready to help you optimize your resume and GET ACCEPTED!

By Jennifer Bloom, admissions consultant at Accepted for 20 years and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). She is an expert at guiding you to produce application materials that truly differentiate you from the rest of the driven applicant pool. If you would like help with your application, Jennifer can suggest a number of options that work with any budget. Want Jennifer to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Interview with Andie Kaplan, Wharton MBA student and founder of ConnectEd [Show summary] Andie Kaplan had an undergraduate degree in business, but knew she needed more formal training to successfully launch her own business, and one year into her MBA at Wharton, she has done just that! Andie shares her story of honing her business...

Andie Kaplan had an undergraduate degree in business, but knew she needed more formal training to successfully launch her own business, and one year into her MBA at Wharton, she has done just that! Andie shares her story of honing her business idea and working with Wharton professors and students to get it off the ground. Best part of her story: She saves international students money on their cell-phone bills!

Andie Kaplan discusses how and why she launched her business, ConnectEd, while at Wharton [Show notes]

Our guest today is Andie Kaplan, who graduated from UVA with a bachelors in Commerce and Math and minors in IT and Business Analytics. I guess she’s a numbers geek. Upon graduation she went to work for Bain for three years. In 2017 she joined Squarespace as a Data Scientist and later was promoted to Senior Data Scientist and Product Analytics Team Lead. She left Squarespace in 2018 to join Wharton’s class of 2020. And at Wharton she founded ConnectEd, which we’ll learn more about during the podcast, along with her story.

Can you tell us a little about your background? Where you grew up? [2:11]

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I went to a large public high school and knew I wanted to study business in college which is what led me to look at undergrad business programs, and ultimately to UVA.

What was hardest part of the MBA app process for you? How did you handle that element? [2:59]

I wasn’t sure when I was first applying whether I wanted to go to school. People go to b-school for a host of different reasons. I had already studied business and wanted to make sure I was applying for the right reasons. A lot of the process you go through with applying is soul searching why you want to be at school, so for me the difficult part was checking the reasons why.

Your undergrad degree is in business and analytics. You worked at Bain for 3 years and then at Squarespace. What did you hope to learn at Wharton, given your extensive foundation in business? [4:01]

I was very fortunate to start at Bain where I was able to apply my skills in a variety of industries and fields, and at Squarespace applying my business analytics skills. For me I knew I wanted to start a company, and when I was in undergrad I was thinking more about leading an established company. Over the last few years I decided I wanted to start my own. A lot of entrepreneurs think if you have an idea, just go do it, but I wanted to put myself in an environment where I could flesh out an idea to take it from an idea to execution. I wanted to further my entrepreneurial skill set and be part of a community and network to make it a reality.

Has Wharton provided what you were looking for? [5:57]

I’m very excited to say we have launched ConnectEd. One of the reasons I chose Wharton is its very flexible curriculum and the ability to start right away. I was able to waive a lot of the core requirements which allowed me to flesh out the idea early on, and it’s been great to work with students and faculty on the idea.

What do you like best and what could be improved at Wharton? [6:50]

The best part is the people I’m surrounded by. I have so many talented and diverse classmates. The friendships, the network has been great. With my interest in entrepreneurship, it has been the ability to start right away.

In terms of improvements, Wharton’s flexibility is somewhat of a double-edged sword. There are lots of people doing lots of different things at any given time. You have to pursue it a lot more on your own, whereas if I were to change the experience at all, it would be great to be working with people at the same stage at the same time.

Did you arrive at Wharton knowing you wanted to start ConnectEd? What is it? [9:07]

We are a new telecom service which offers family plan cellphone service direct to students, specifically to international students. Typically, they don’t have domestic families or social security numbers for plans, so previously that would have to spend approximately 2.5 times the typical plan. We are reaching a market not able to be served by existing operators.

I was pretty sure I wanted to start a business in school but not sure what. I kept a running list, and this started as a different idea, essentially to share recurring expenses with people, and centralizing the share of a payment. I was looking for what had the most pain and frustration associated with it, and it was cellphone plans.

When you get into Wharton you join an incoming student group and seeing the chatter from international students I saw they were inquiring if people had spots in their family plan. They didn’t have access to this service. From this I had a good idea who I wanted to reach, but working with classmates and faculty at the marketplace, how to create the software, and what the landscape looks like moved it from idea to execution.

Starting business school there was a lot going on, but I had an idea and wanted to work on it. I asked students upfront for help. People with this pain point were happy to share their experience, and I was able to do informal research. I also took courses, like Intro to Entrepreneurship, to figure out the right way to approach things. If there is a marketplace, you don’t have control over the experience. We landed on where we are today – we work as a reseller to provide access to the customer segment — unlocking an opportunity for the network and providing better experience for the customers.

It is convenient as well as easy when someone is getting started. Prices start at $22.99/month, with a 2-gig plan. It is $33.99/month for more bells and whistles, whereas it would be $70-80/month from other networks. We essentially created an enormous family plan for consumers of ConnectEd. We run one large unlimited family plan, and no one is liable for anyone else on the plan.

The difficulties of a traditional family plan is there is one admin with a SS#, all members have to purchase at the same time. One person pays, collecting payment every month. It can be quite a headache to be the admin, with different usage, so giving someone a seat on the plan where their contract is just for themselves is a real lifesaver. Each customer has their own schedule, their own plan, operating at a scale that can offer everyone what they want.

How has the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship VIP Xcelerate program helped you and ConnectEd? Getting funding? [17:41]

We are bootstrapping right now, which is our plan for the future. There have been lots of opportunities to earn non-diluted funding. We are in VIP Xcelerate, which has a non-diluted grant. For us in particular, there was Professor Borghesi, an operating attorney in Philadelphia, who helped us answer the questions of, “What is the way we want to operate?” “How do we work with a network provider?” It was so valuable working with him as we got started. His encouragement made a huge difference.

How do you manage the demands of bschool and running a business? [19:06]

School is demanding, but the advice I would give to anyone is to think through what their priorities are. For me, one is creating a business, and one is friendships, investing in people. Notice I didn’t say academics. I wasn’t recruiting for a consulting or investment banking job, which would have taken a lot of time. I was interested in a lot of the courses directly applicable to starting my business. Know how you are prioritizing and why.

Did you have experience in telecommunications before starting ConnectEd? If not, has that been a problem? [20:32]

No, I didn’t. It has been a really great experience, coming in without preconceived notions and bringing new ideas in. I had worked across industries in consulting, and it is a great experience getting up to speed in a new industry and taking what you’ve seen in different industries and applying it. What I have really focused on is, “If I am a new customer, what do I want the experience to be?” Let’s build backwards from there.

What are your plans for the future? [22:14]

I spent the entire first year developing the relationship with the network provider. This summer was spent bringing on our first set of customers. The best part has been the reaction and feedback from customers. 50% are sending emails thanking us for the service. We are reaching people moving to the U.S. for the first time, which is an overwhelming experience. We are providing something that is historically overwhelming, and access without a SS# or credit history, so making one aspect of the move much easier. We are working on automating the platform and building out capabilities and new programs for next year. Over 70% of our growth is through word of mouth.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [25:52]

I would love to help listeners understand that we are democratizing cellphone service and breaking down barriers for people to access it. A lot of our customers today are people who have been in the U.S. for years. It is very easy to move your cellphone number over – only five minutes. We can bring you onboard!

Take a few buzzwords like “pro bono,” “intellectual property,” “empower,” “clerkships,” and “diversity.” Season with legalisms like “heretofore,” “whereas,” and “therein.” Add a pinch of acronyms: DA, TRO, M&A, ADR, and IPO. Stir in generous platitudes about “forces that molded you into the person you are today” and “the top-notch faculty, diverse student body, and...

Take a few buzzwords like “pro bono,” “intellectual property,” “empower,” “clerkships,” and “diversity.”

Season with legalisms like “heretofore,” “whereas,” and “therein.”

Add a pinch of acronyms: DA, TRO, M&A, ADR, and IPO.

Stir in generous platitudes about “forces that molded you into the person you are today” and “the top-notch faculty, diverse student body, and outstanding alumni network” at the schools you are applying to.

Serve to a group of your fifty closest colleagues, friends, and relatives and ask for feedback.

Ditch the one-size-fits-all admissions plan

All too often law school applicants grope for a recipe for success, a one-size-fits-all approach to writing the application essay. But this recipe doesn’t exist. You aren’t making pancakes here; you’re trying to portray yourself as a multifaceted, one-of-a kind gem. How do you do that? Read through the mistakes below to learn what NOT to do and to learn how to focus on your uniqueness, accomplishments, and strengths as you refine your essays.

10 law school application mistakes you don’t want to make

MISTAKE #1: You weren’t true to yourself.

Sincere self-reflection forms the basis for insightful essays. Go beyond the superficialities like “I want to participate fully in the legal and political process,” or “I want to protect underserved communities,” or even “I want to make $$$$.” Go deep into yourself so that you will answer distinctively and honestly.

Examine all areas of your background to determine what unusual qualities and experiences you can contribute to your law school class. When have you overcome obstacles? Where did you excel? What is important to you – besides obtaining a JD? Why? Where have you served someone or some cause other than yourself? Why? When have you assumed a leadership role? How did you become interested in law? What aspects of legal work appeal to you? What experience do you have in a legal setting?

The answers to these questions form the raw material for your essay. You will mine them repeatedly as you go through the writing process. If you go through this stage with sincerity and integrity, you will find the gold vein. Fool’s gold is for those who lazily fool themselves.

MISTAKE #2: You didn’t do your homework.

You should have some idea what you want to do with your degree and why you are applying to the particular programs that you have chosen. There is so much information out there about the schools and their programs. Use it to determine which schools you should apply to and how to target your essays.

I recommend the following sources:

The schools’ website and information sessions

U.S. News & World Report’s statistics and links about law school programs

Strategize. While you could write about significant research experience or a legal internship, shouldn’t the adcoms also know you are a disciplined athlete who has competed on a master’s swim team for years? Perhaps you led a political campaign for a local politician, or volunteered for three years at a local legal aid clinic and assumed increasing responsibility. Perhaps you founded and led a neighborhood group that negotiated with a large conglomerate when the latter’s development plans threatened local wildlife and a fragile ecosystem.

Focus on the achievements that are most important to you and distinctive about you.

MISTAKE #4: Your personal statement lacks a theme.

A theme should be a one-sentence summary of your essay. This theme, the main point you are trying to convey, may or may not appear verbatim in the essay, but it should guide you in writing and ensure that you stay on topic. Throw out anything that doesn’t support your theme.

It is particularly important to clearly state your theme if you are writing about more than one event or aspect of your life. Stating a lucid theme immediately following the lead (see #6 below) can provide the reader with a roadmap to your essay and contribute to the essay’s cohesiveness.

MISTAKE #5: You didn’t use concrete examples to support your theme

Use specifics, vivid images, concrete examples, and interesting details to convey your points. Don’t merely discuss a belief or value; illustrate it. For example, if you want to write about your mother’s influence on your life, start with details that allow the reader to see, hear, or touch your differences and similarities. You could start, “Although Mom and I are very different people, I consider her the most profound influence on my values and the person I have become. I constantly try to emulate her.” OK. Yawn. Or you could start, “I love jogging, tennis, skiing; she considers walking to the car to be exercise. My alarm clock rings at 6:30 AM on Sunday; her day begins at noon. I need a certain amount of time pressure to produce my best; she hates a last-minute rush. Yet, despite these irritating differences, Mom has set an example of determination, professional excellence, and service to the community that I am constantly trying to emulate.”

Note the amount of information conveyed in a short period of time. Note also the interest created by not identifying the mysterious “she” immediately. Finally and most importantly, pay attention to the use of detail. It creates interest and forms an intrinsic part of a distinctive essay.

Specifics are also important in discussing extracurricular activities and professional achievement. Numbers are particularly revealing (and take up little space). Which says more? “Under my leadership, our pre-law society grew greatly.” Or, “By actively encouraging participation and initiating a host of new activities as president, I watched the average attendance at pre-law society meetings soar from 10 to 50.” Don’t write about “volunteering”; write about helping ten Guatemalan day laborers avoid eviction. And if you choose to write about a major writing project, let your readers know its length and some of the difficulties you encountered on the way.

MISTAKE #6: You neglected your essay’s opening lines.

Start your essay with an attention-grabbing lead that immediately illustrates your main point.

The opening of your essay will determine whether it is read out of obligation or interest. You need to start with a lead, something that grabs the reader’s attention. Journalists constantly capture our attention with anecdotes, quotes, interesting statistics, and gripping descriptions of a scene or event. Use the same techniques.

Anecdotes are particularly effective openings. Perhaps you are proud of a certain achievement. Which moment in your life best illustrates that accomplishment? Start your essay with that moment and then write about its influence and significance. Or perhaps one event really influenced your decision to pursue a career in law. Write about it so vividly so that I too can experience it.

MISTAKE #7: Your essay lacks insight and analysis.

While I have emphasized the importance of detail, the essays also must provide insight into you. Balance description with analysis. Facts without analysis can easily turn into a resume in prose or a boring, superficial autobiography. Combine a few critical events with insightful analysis and you will really polish the gem.

MISTAKE #8: You whined.

Everyone has blemishes. Don’t whine or cry about them. Doing so merely magnifies them. If you feel you must address some poor grades or a less-than-desirable LSAT, then take responsibility; if relevant, explain the circumstances that contributed to the weakness, and move on. If you can portray the difficulty as a growth experience, you could turn a liability into an asset.

MISTAKE #9: You forgot your conclusion.

Don’t leave me hanging with no sense of completion or unity. Bring your essay full circle by referring back to your lead, perhaps stating your thesis, and highlighting the main points you would like the reader to remember.

MISTAKE #10: You didn’t edit your personal statement.

To make this baby really shine, ensure it is correctly written. The essay must follow the rules of good grammar, punctuation, and style. Here are a few tips:

Read the essays out loud to yourself to catch errors that your eye misses.

And while I do not recommend seeking feedback from your fifty closest friends, I do recommend showing it to a few people, preferably two to five. Ask those who write well to comment on the writing and ask those who know you well to comment on whether it reflects you.

Bottom line

No, you won’t find a good recipe for a winning personal statement. Writing compelling essays requires self-reflection, research, and hard work. But using these tools to produce and refine a revealing, multifaceted portrait of you will also create a unique gem of an essay.

Looking for one-on-one guidance as you make your way through your law school application? The expert advisors at Accepted are ready to help! Explore our Law School Admissions Consulting & Editing Services to work with a consultant who will ensure that your application is a smashing success, and NOT a recipe for disaster. Learn more here about how to GET ACCEPTED.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top law schools and LLM programs. Our team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, lawyers, and professional writers who have guided our clients to acceptance at top programs including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Penn, NYU, and many more. Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Did you miss all the great tips from Brett Etheridge of Dominate Test Prep during our recent webinar, Your 3-Part Game Plan to Dominate the GRE? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. The webinar is now live on our site and ready for viewing at your leisure – just don’t take too leisurely an...

Did you miss all the great tips from Brett Etheridge of Dominate Test Prep during our recent webinar, Your 3-Part Game Plan to Dominate the GRE? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. The webinar is now live on our site and ready for viewing at your leisure – just don’t take too leisurely an approach on your GRE test preparation!

Watch the webinar:

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Most of you are now — or will be soon — editing your critical application essays and personal statements. When Accepted consultants review and edit your essays, they go through a process I call the editing funnel. When you edit your own essays, you should follow a similar process. How the editing funnel works Here’s...

Most of you are now — or will be soon — editing your critical application essays and personal statements. When Accepted consultants review and edit your essays, they go through a process I call the editing funnel. When you edit your own essays, you should follow a similar process.

How the editing funnel works

Here’s your step-by-step guide to using the editing funnel:

Start with the big picture (top of the funnel)

At the top of the funnel you evaluate your essay in the context of the application. Ask yourself:

At the narrowest part of the funnel, check writing mechanics: clarity, grammar, style, word usage, spelling, punctuation, and all the nitty-gritty details of writing. You may be a little bleary-eyed at this point and almost unable to view the essay(s) objectively. To restore a little objectivity, put the draft away, preferably for a couple of days; if you don’t have that much time, then at least a couple of hours. When proofing your essay, read it out loud. Doing so will slow you down and allow your ear to catch some of the little errors that your eye may miss.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Most law schools subscribe to the concept of “rolling admissions.” The application cycle begins or “opens” in early fall, likely September 1, and remains open until early spring, usually March or April. Applicants can submit their application during this time period, and schools will email decisions on a “rolling basis.” Thus, if you apply in...

Most law schools subscribe to the concept of “rolling admissions.” The application cycle begins or “opens” in early fall, likely September 1, and remains open until early spring, usually March or April. Applicants can submit their application during this time period, and schools will email decisions on a “rolling basis.” Thus, if you apply in September, you potentially could receive your decision in roughly six to eight weeks, if not sooner.

When is the best time to apply to law school…for YOU?

Given that information, how does an applicant decide when is the best time to apply? Over the nine years I worked as Associate Director of Law School Admissions at Boston University School of Law, I heard many of my admissions colleagues respond by stating, “The earlier the better.” I myself would always expand on that principle and respond, “The earliest that you can submit your STRONGEST application is the best time to apply.”

Early is best…but rushed is worst

Applicants do themselves a disservice when they rush to apply in September or October just to meet a deadline that doesn’t truly exist (unless of course you are applying through an early decision program, then deadlines in the fall exist and I will discuss the merits of early decision programs in a later blog post, but the rest of this post still holds true so keep reading!). The application process should not be rushed. So many components need attention, and the concept of “attention to detail” is paramount throughout the application process, and should be adhered to through your legal education and ultimately, into your legal career.

Admissions professionals notice rushed applications. These submissions generally have proofreading mistakes in personal statements and resumes. Hastily written letters of recommendation – because you asked a professor or employer at the last minute – don’t do anyone any favors. Rushed applications are often followed by emails from applicants expressing apologies for submitting the wrong personal statement and requesting to please only look at this new attached copy. Well, committees will read the attached copy, and the original with errors, and your email with a desperate plea for a second chance… Not exactly the strongest case for admission, right?

Timing counts, but a strong application later in the cycle is better than a rushed September submission. For a solid application, you’ll want to:

Map out enough time to study comprehensively for the LSAT to achieve your best score.

Seek letters of recommendation early so that your recommenders are not rushed – or annoyed – and are able to confidently state that you are prepared and conscientious.

Send your personal statement to someone like me or my Accepted colleagues for a second, experienced opinion, and do so with enough time so that you can implement any suggestions we make.

Make sure that you are answering every question asked in a specific application – not submitting general answers that gloss over what Law School X is asking with an essay that you are also submitting to Law Schools Y and Z.

Why mistakes matter so much in your law school application

When I read applications, I would ask myself, “Would I hire this future lawyer?” If there were careless mistakes in the application, I would have second thoughts. And you don’t want the person evaluating your application to have second thoughts and doubts. Realize that with so many applications competing with yours, the applications that don’t engender doubts have a major edge.

So, when should you submit your law school application?

When you are convinced it is the best representation of yourself.

But, if after reading this, you are still aiming to apply to law school later in the admissions cycle and want a date to target without harming your admissions chances, I recommend submitting no later than mid-January for the best chances of spots (not to mention scholarship funds) still available.

Between now and January, there is enough time for you to plan and submit that “accept me immediately” application. But don’t wait forever – study for the LSAT; draft, rewrite, edit, and proofread your application components; and then submit your strongest application.

Christine Carr is a Harvard graduate with over 15 years of admissions experience, including nine years as Associate Director of Admissions at Boston University School of Law. She has read over 10,000 personal statements and counseled thousands of prospective applicants through the application process Want Christine to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

“I don’t understand… I already have a perfect resume… I have used it in all of my job searches… I don’t need to make any changes… I really don’t need help with this.” This was from Carina, a prospective Master in Environmental Engineering student. I had told Carina that she needed to improve her resume,...

“I don’t understand… I already have a perfect resume… I have used it in all of my job searches… I don’t need to make any changes… I really don’t need help with this.” This was from Carina, a prospective Master in Environmental Engineering student. I had told Carina that she needed to improve her resume, and was somewhat surprised by her response since she had welcomed my assistance on her graduate essays for the master’s program as well as my interview coaching and letter of reference guidance. And yet I was faced with almost a brick wall of resistance as it related to her resume.

When I asked her why she was so certain that her current resume was appropriate for her graduate application, she responded with silence. I told her that I could help her to create a resume designed specifically for the graduate program in environmental engineering.

Why you should view your resume with the eye of a marketer

I calmly shared with her that compiling all of the application materials is very similar to what corporate marketing professionals do when they are preparing sales literature, making package design decisions, and launching an advertising campaign to introduce a new product to the market. In this case, however, the new product that you are launching is you.

Your resume is an integral piece of sales literature that, if done well, can help market you to the graduate program of your choice. How it looks, what you include, what you exclude, how well you highlight your strengths, and the order and labels ascribed to the various categories will all impact their perception of who you are and what you have to offer.

Why one size does NOT fit all

When it comes to resumes, one size does NOT fit all – one resume will not be appropriate for every job and/or educational opportunity. In fact, over the years, I have helped prospective graduate students to prepare multiple versions of what they thought was the same resume.

These three marketing strategies helped Carina understand the art of resume writing, and I think they will help you too.

3 strategies for creating the best application resume

STRATEGY #1: Consider the target audience.

Just as the marketing professional does, you need to consider carefully who will be reading your resume.

If the application materials are reviewed by a committee, it may prove helpful to know how many people sit on the committee, who they are, and if any of them have research interests that match up well with yours?

If the application is reviewed by a graduate program director, then you would do well to have an understanding of how you might be perceived as a candidate based on the admissions criteria of the program. Put yourself in their place. What would impress you the most on the resume?

Remember, when you are selling a product (yourself) you need to know what will move your audience to action.

Prepare a prototype of a resume that you believe would “close the sale.” And then, as much as possible, model yours based on the prototype.

STRATEGY #2: Assess your strengths in relation to all of the resume categories.

To accomplish this, you want to:

Sit yourself down and prepare a list of your professional skills. This will include such items as work leadership positions, special licenses and/or certifications, promotions within your work setting, and committee work (task force, team-based initiatives project leadership, special assignments, etc.).

Prioritize the list in terms of how important and/or relevant they are to the graduate program criteria. This will ensure that you spotlight those strengths that will impress your target audience. For example, if you are applying to an MBA or MS in Finance, you will need to highlight your internship at a major banking institution and either downplay your camp counselor experience or omit it from your resume. You are, in a sense, seeking out your “selling points.” In other words, what about this product makes it so special that I would like to buy it? Remember, the product is you.

Put yourself in the place of the graduate admissions committee for this program. Then consider which of the strengths that you possess will be most impressive.

Prepare another list of your academic achievements, research and publications, community service, special skills and talents, and licenses and certifications. Once you have the list, consider, once again, which will impact your candidacy for the graduate program. For example, a graduate program in architecture may not really care if you are licensed lifeguard but may care very much if you are CAD certified. So once again you must always consider your target audience.

STRATEGY #3: Format your resume strategically.

Once again consider your target audience. If Community Service is highly valued by your graduate program, then it is incumbent on you to have a category called “Community Service.” If you list it under extracurricular activities or volunteer work, it will not make the same impact. In fact, it may not even be noticed buried among items such as “played on the tennis team”, “enjoy theater”, etc.

Use language carefully and strategically. Check out the mission statement of the school or graduate program as this will be a good indicator of the values and qualities that they embrace. Then make sure that this is reflected in the items that you include.

Order the categories based on importance. For example, if the resume is for a job, you would list your current jobs first with dates of employment followed by a bulleted list of your responsibilities. A job title can be included if you believe it will make you more marketable. If your resume is for a graduate program, the first category would be education and degrees earned or expected. Again, one size does NOT fit all, so, if you are applying for an MBA or EMBA you may want to change the order especially if there is a work requirement for the program. For these programs, professional experience should precede educational credentials.

Name the categories so that they appropriately reflect the items listed. If, for example, you have some work experience and some internships you may want to separate them into two sections. Certifications and Licenses should be a separate section.

If it worked for Carina…

After reviewing all of the strategies, Carina looked me right in the eyes and said, “OMG, I had no idea. You could teach a class on this.” I smiled and said, “I have taught workshops and seminars on this very topic and, from time to time, have included a unit on job interviewing/resume writing in my interpersonal communications classes.” No further resistance from Carina. She went right to work on a new and improved resume and shared that she would always remember how the phrase “one size does not fit all” helped her get accepted.

Work with an admissions expert to create a personalized resume strategy that will help you get accepted! Check out our Admissions Resume Services for more information.

As a Dean of Graduate Admissions for over 10 years, Carol Drummer, signed off on over 4,500 graduate applications annually. She is a communication professor and author of "College Is Not 13th Grade-- An Easy to Read Guide for Parents of College Bound Students." Carol has helped clients get accepted to Ph.D. Psy.D, DOT, DPT, PA, MHA, MSW, and masters in Speech Language Pathology, Business Analytics, Accounting, Global Affairs, Counseling, Architecture, Design Engineering , Nutrition, Exercise Physiology to name a few. Want Carol to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Most applicants – whether applying to med school, law school, business school, or any other grad school or college program – need to deal with rigid character or word limits when writing their application essays or personal statements. You may start out thinking that you have nothing to write, but generally, once applicants begin writing,...

Most applicants – whether applying to med school, law school, business school, or any other grad school or college program – need to deal with rigid character or word limits when writing their application essays or personal statements. You may start out thinking that you have nothing to write, but generally, once applicants begin writing, they find they have too much to say!

To keep within those pesky word limits, you need to make sure you keep your writing succinct. How? Check your verbs. Poor usage of verbs creates verbosity. Effective use contributes to concision.

5 ways to manage your word limits

Here are a few techniques, followed by examples:

Get rid of unnecessary helping verbs.

Verbose: She is going to be applying to ten medical schools. (10 words)

Verbose: I took advantage of the opportunity to do research on… (10 words)

Succinct: I researched… (2 words)

Seek the verbs in nouns.

Verbose: I came to the conclusion… (5 words)

Succinct: I concluded… (2 words)

Minimize use of the passive voice.

Verbose: Experience A has been complemented by experience B. (8 words)

Succinct: Experience B complements experience A. (5 words)

Why these tips are so important

These editing techniques will help you trim your long-winded, verbose, never-ending essays into concise, engaging, and highly readable admissions masterpieces.

Do you need help editing your essay so it shines? Write an impressive application essay that will get you accepted with the assistance of an Accepted admissions pro. Check out our Essay Editing Services for more information.

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>Last Call! Learn the Best Way to Prep for the GREhttps://blog.accepted.com/last-call-learn-the-best-way-to-prep-for-the-gre/
Sun, 11 Aug 2019 20:30:17 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=65806

Got the jitters about taking the GRE? We understand, which is why we’ve got an information-packed webinar coming up to help you take control of the process – Your 3-Part Game Plan to Dominate the GRE, hosted by Dominate Test Prep’s founder, Brett Etheridge, on Monday, August 12th at 5pm PT/8pm ET. Don’t miss out...

Got the jitters about taking the GRE? We understand, which is why we’ve got an information-packed webinar coming up to help you take control of the process – Your 3-Part Game Plan to Dominate the GRE, hosted by Dominate Test Prep’s founder, Brett Etheridge, on Monday, August 12th at 5pm PT/8pm ET. Don’t miss out on this amazing free resource.

Watch the webinar:

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Let’s acknowledge something upfront: The GRE can be a nuisance. It stands between you and graduate school, and there’s a lot you have to learn to do well on it. For a lot of students, it’s been a long time since you’ve had to do the kind of math tested on the GRE. Certainly you...

Let’s acknowledge something upfront: The GRE can be a nuisance. It stands between you and graduate school, and there’s a lot you have to learn to do well on it. For a lot of students, it’s been a long time since you’ve had to do the kind of math tested on the GRE. Certainly you can show admissions officers your potential value to their program in some other way than suffering through a standardized test, right?

I get it. That’s a lament I often hear from my students, and I readily acknowledge that the GRE is a means to an end — your acceptance to grad school. But what an important end that is. As such, the GRE is important and needs to be respected.

Looking at the GRE with new eyes

The GRE has been part of the graduate admissions process for over 70 years, and it’s not going anywhere. So let me play devil’s advocate for a moment and give you five reasons why the GRE is valued by admissions officers as they evaluate your candidacy. Understanding their thought process can reshape your thinking about the exam and put you in the right mindset to prepare most effectively for it.

The GRE gives schools a common measuring stick for narrowing down a large and diverse applicant pool. Yes, you’re unique. And yes, you should be evaluated as the individual you are. The rest of your application (essays, résumé, etc.) serves that purpose. But the GRE gives admissions officers a starting point to make sure the candidates they choose to take a serious look at have the capacity to succeed in their program.

Toward that end, the GRE actually does a pretty good job of predicting your success in graduate school. These validity studies attest to that fact. Does that mean that someone with a low GRE score can’t still do well in the classroom? Of course not. Likewise, some high scorers may struggle in the team environment that’s common in many graduate programs. But on par, if your GRE score is below the median range for the school(s) you’re applying to, you may have a tough time with that particular program’s coursework — and that does a disservice to you and them both.

The GRE is a reasoning exam, not an IQ test. Indeed, the test makers actually call the math sections of the GRE Quantitative Reasoning and the verbal sections Verbal Reasoning. Strong reasoning skills are important in higher education, and doing well on the GRE helps prove to admissions officers that you possess those requisite reasoning skills.

In a way, the GRE is a stress test, too. Do standardized tests like the GRE make you feel anxious? That’s okay. Normal, even. But can you control that anxiety and still perform your best under test-day pressure? That’s part of what you’re trying to demonstrate by doing well on the GRE. A high GRE score shows not just that you possess the necessary quantitative and verbal skills schools are looking for, but also that you can control your nerves and think clearly when the stakes are high. If you can do it on the GRE, you’ll be able to do it when you have to deliver your first case study, take your first midterm, or defend your thesis.

The GRE helps you demonstrate your commitment to graduate school. For most people, success on the GRE isn’t automatic. You have to work for it. Even if you have to take the GRE more than once, that’s actually viewed as a good thing by a lot of admissions officers. It shows you care, that you want it. You went back to the drawing board, studied, improved, took a GRE prep course perhaps, worked on your weaknesses, and overcame your challenges. Those are traits that schools are looking for. The GRE is an opportunity for you to show schools that you have the chops to go after what you want.

Bottom line

As my dad always used to tell me, “You can either complain or you can prepare.” Worrying about whether the GRE is or isn’t a good indicator of your talents doesn’t do you any good. At the end of the day, if the GRE is required as part of your application, that means it’s viewed as important to the admissions committee. And if it’s important to them, it’s important for you.

So adopt the mindset that the GRE is an opportunity to be seized, a hurdle to overcome, a challenge that you will rise to meet on your journey to graduate school and the next exciting chapter of your career. You’ve got this!

Whether you’re still in the early stages of thinking about taking the GRE or are already knee-deep in preparing for it, join us on August 12th for a free webinar where you’ll learn an actionable three-part game plan for dominating the GRE. Click here to reserve your spot. See you then!

Brett Ethridge is the founder of Dominate Test Prep, a leading provider of GMAT and GRE courses online as well as topic-specific GRE and GMAT video lessons. He has taught both exams for over 12 years and loves working with students to help them achieve their highest potential. Brett is an entrepreneur, a competitive tennis player, and an avid Duke basketball fan.

]]>Pop Quiz: How Should You Prepare for the GRE?https://blog.accepted.com/pop-quiz-how-should-you-prepare-for-the-gre/
Tue, 06 Aug 2019 16:30:07 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=65721

True or False? Some people are natural test-takers who won’t need to study at all and will still ace the GRE. FALSE! Even the smartest among us still need to prepare for something as difficult and weighty as the GRE. The more focused prep you do using reliable sources, the greater your chances are of...

During this live webinar on Monday, August 12th at 5pm PT/8pm ET, Brett will help you create an actionable plan for studying for and taking the GRE confidently and successfully.

Watch the webinar:

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

When you write an application essay or statement of purpose, you’re trying to accomplish several goals at once: (a) You need to prove your worthiness to be accepted to your target school, while (b) also showing the adcom that you have desirable character traits that your program values. But how do you prove to people whom you...

When you write an application essay or statement of purpose, you’re trying to accomplish several goals at once: (a) You need to prove your worthiness to be accepted to your target school, while (b) also showing the adcom that you have desirable character traits that your program values. But how do you prove to people whom you have never met that you really are smart, determined, focused, and creative, without bragging?

Show, don’t tell

The cardinal rule for achieving this is: “Show, don’t tell.” This requires you to draw upon true anecdotes from your life that will illustrate the trait you are trying to show in a compelling way. If you do the opposite – “Tell, not show” – you end up with boastful claims, such as: “I was considered among the smartest in my department” or “I’m a team player” or “I have the maturity of someone much older.” I have seen some clients make these statements and not back them up with any evidence at all. Would this sound convincing to you, coming from someone you’ve never met? Hardly.

However, when you highlight selected experiences chosen to underscore your fantastic qualities, you’ll make your own case far more convincingly than by just telling the adcom that you are creative, motivated, and hardworking.

Telling stories to make your point

Let’s say for example that you’re applying to law school, and you want to prove your dedication to this career. Show the steps you’ve taken to reach the goal. Write about the summer you interned at a law office, volunteered to help re-elect your state senator, and took a part-time job at a law library. Thoughtfully describe what you learned from these experiences and how they further encouraged your interest in the law. These actions will show your dedication beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Another example: You want to show you’re a team player – a valuable trait for just about any career, and especially important for aspiring MBAs. Good examples could include: a time you came up with a creative compromise to a problem where your coworkers on a team were deadlocked; offering to take on additional responsibilities at work or on a school or club project when you saw everyone else was overloaded; or asking your supervisor what you could do to add more value to your department. Devoting anywhere from 3-5 sentences to each of these examples should be enough to demonstrate your point.

Actions matter!

Whether you want to reveal creativity, intelligence, dedication, commitment to social action, or anything else, choose two examples (or three if you have room) where you have actively displayed those traits. Telling these mini-stories will save you from awkwardly claiming a certain quality. Let your own actions make the case for you.

Remember: Show, don’t tell.

Our consultants have 20+ years of experience guiding applicants to admission with compelling, detailed, and story-filled essays. Are you ready to join the ranks of Accepted’s accepted clients? Explore our Admissions Consulting & Editing Services for more information on how we can help you create a winning application essay that highlights your greatest character traits, one that will get you noticed and accepted at your top-choice program. Learn more here.

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, and other Accepted ebooks, MBA Letters of Recommendation That Rock and Law School Letters of Recommendation that Rock. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

]]>When is the Best Time to Take the GRE?https://blog.accepted.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-take-the-gre/
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:00:12 +0000https://blog.accepted.com/?p=65675

If you’re applying to graduate or business school, it’s likely that you need to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for admission. The GRE is a standardized test that covers a broad range of quantitative and verbal topics and requires ample preparation time, so you need to be strategic about when to take it. While...

If you’re applying to graduate or business school, it’s likely that you need to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for admission. The GRE is a standardized test that covers a broad range of quantitative and verbal topics and requires ample preparation time, so you need to be strategic about when to take it. While each test taker’s circumstance is unique, there are nevertheless some general guidelines you should consider as you map out your GRE game plan. Let’s take a closer look.

There’s no time like the present

There’s a poem by personal development author Denis Waitley called “Someday Isle” about a fantasy island you’ll never see if you continue to put off your dreams by invoking the excuse, “Someday I’ll….”

There’s never a perfect time to embark on the journey of preparing for an exam like the GRE. It takes time and effort and you no doubt have plenty of other things competing for your attention. Yet, once you’ve made the decision to go back to school and know that you’ll have to take the GRE before applying, you might as well go ahead and start preparing now.

I’m a big believer in the concept of reverse procrastination, doing now what our inclination is to put off until later. Is waiting to take the GRE really going to make it any easier? Of course not. The exam and preparation will end up being the same, the only difference will be the time you will have lost.

Remember that your GRE score is good for five years, so go ahead and get it out of the way. Even if you don’t apply to grad school for a year or two, that’s okay. At least you’ll have the GRE in your back pocket to use whenever you’re ready.

Start with the end in mind

While the general advice to take the GRE sooner rather than later is valid, you can be more strategic about exactly when to sign up for the GRE by working backwards from your application deadline(s). Toward that end, the first thing you should do is check the website of the schools you’re going to be applying to for specifics about their application processes, including deadlines. To figure out when you should schedule your GRE and start preparing, consider the following.

It could take up to two weeks for your official GRE score report to be sent to the schools you select at the testing center. While some schools may review your application and make a decision on your candidacy pending an official GRE score, I’m of the mind that you should take the GRE enough in advance that the school has your official score before the application deadline. To be safe, subtract 15 days from your earliest deadline to determine the latest you should schedule your GRE.

Account for the possibility that you may need to retake the GRE if your score on the first attempt isn’t where you need it. You can only take the exam once every 21 days (and no more than five times in a 365-day period), so my recommendation would be to actually schedule your GRE at least 36 days before your earliest application deadline — enough time to take the exam again if necessary and still ensure that schools will get your official score report in time.

Most people need a couple of months to fully prepare for the GRE, assuming you’re starting from scratch. For reference, our comprehensive GRE prep course has a seven-week syllabus, and most students find that to be an ideal timeframe to learn all of the material and get the score they’re shooting for. So if you’re going to take your first crack at the GRE at least 36 days before your applications are due, that means starting to study for it at least three months before those deadlines — and perhaps even a little earlier to give yourself some wiggle room in case it takes you longer than expected to refresh all of that high school math you haven’t seen in years!

Don’t forget the rest of your application

If you won’t be applying until next year and still have a half a year or more before your deadlines, don’t forget that the non-GRE parts of your application are time-intensive as well — and equally important. As such, it would still be a good idea to spend the next couple months studying for the GRE and getting it out of the way now so that you can turn your attention to the rest of the application process.

I’ve seen it too often where a student leaves the GRE until the very last minute and feels increased pressure to get a great score just a day or two before an application deadline. Talk about putting all of your eggs in one basket. It’s hard to perform your best under that kind of stress, so leave yourself some breathing room if at all possible.

Need a GRE study plan?

Whether you’re still in the early stages of thinking about taking the GRE or are already knee-deep in preparing for it, join us on August 12th for a free webinar where you’ll learn an actionable three-part game plan for dominating the GRE. Click here to reserve your spot. See you then!

Brett Ethridge is the founder of Dominate Test Prep, a leading provider of GMAT and GRE courses online as well as topic-specific GRE and GMAT video lessons. He has taught both exams for over 12 years and loves working with students to help them achieve their highest potential. Brett is an entrepreneur, a competitive tennis player, and an avid Duke basketball fan.

Only two days left to take advantage of Accepted’s current rates before our prices go up! Effective at 12:00am PT on Thursday, August 1, 2019, Accepted will increase all prices on its admissions consulting packages and hourly services. Accepted’s admissions consultants have helped thousands of MBA, law, med, grad, and college applicants get accepted to...

Only two days left to take advantage of Accepted’s current rates before our prices go up!

Effective at 12:00am PT on Thursday, August 1, 2019, Accepted will increase all prices on its admissions consulting packages and hourly services.

Accepted’s admissions consultants have helped thousands of MBA, law, med, grad, and college applicants get accepted to the schools of their dreams. Let them help you discover your competitive advantage and experience the excitement of getting accepted.

Apply with an admissions pro on your side – purchase an Accepted service before Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 11:59pm PT, and get the help you need on your applications, all while taking advantage of our pre-increase prices!

For 25 years, Accepted has helped applicants gain acceptance to top undergraduate and graduate programs. Our expert team of admissions consultants features former admissions directors, PhDs, and professional writers who have advised clients to acceptance at top programs worldwide including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, INSEAD, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern.
Want an admissions expert to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!